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II  I  fell 


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BY    GODFREY    SWEVEN 


RIALLARO:  THE  ARCHIPELAGO  OF  EXILES 

[2   .      $1.50 

LIMANORA:  THE   ISLAND  OF   PROGRESS 

12  .    $1.50 


(i.   P.   PUTNAM'S    SONS 

New  York  and  London 


LIMANORA 


THE  ISLAND  OF  PROGRESS 


BY 

GODFREY  SWEVEN 

Author  of  "Riallaro,  The  Archipelago  of  Exiles" 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

Gbe  Iknfcfeei-bocfcer  lpreee 

1903 


Copyright,  1903 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Published,  June,  1903 


"Cbc  ftntcfeerbocfeet  press,  Ittcw  Bor"! 


"RBR 


PREFACE 


IT  was  long  before  our  strange  guest  could  be  induced 
to  continue  his  narrative.  He  had  seemed  to  hesi- 
tate as  he  approached  the  close  of  his  sojourn  in  the 
outer  islets  of  the  archipelago.  He  several  times  post- 
poned the  story  of  his  exit  from  it  in  the  projectile. 
And  for  months  he  left  his  history  hanging  in  air,  and 
the  strange  coffin  in  which  he  had  been  confined  exe- 
cuting its  parabola  from  his  yacht. 

There  was  some  excuse  for  his  delay,  for  the  winter 
had  fled,  and  the  birds  and  the  flowering  trees  around 
us  gloried  again  in  song  and  colour.  He  grew  restless 
as  the  days  lengthened,  and  could  not  bear  to  settle  in 
our  shelter  by  the  fiord.  All  that  we  saw  of  him  for 
months  was  his  occasional  flight  from  precipice  to 
precipice  above  the  sombre  green  of  the  bush.  It  was 
as  easy  for  him  to  flit  from  knoll  to  knoll  as  it  was  for 
us  to  leap  a  ditch.  He  had  regained  his  old  bird-like 
gait,  that  to  us  was  noiseless.  What  he  fed  on  came  to 
be  a  puzzle,  for  he  seldom  joined  us  now  in  our  meals; 
and  the  old  semi-transparency  came  into  his  face. 

Weeks  and  weeks  together  none  of  us  would  see 
him.  Where  he  went  we  knew  not,  nor  had  we  the 
heart  to  follow  him  and  trace  his  whereabouts.  Now 
and  again  he  would  join  one  or  another  of  us  at  our 


443538 


iv  Preface 

work,  and  indicate  the  direction  in  which  we  should 
tunnel  or  dig  for  the  richer  layers  of  wash-dirt.  His 
instinctive  sense  of  the  presence  of  gold  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  earth  seemed  to  us  in  our  blind  groping 
miraculous.  We  never  found  him  mistaken  in  his  in- 
dications. But  we  felt  it  a  kind  of  desecration  to  ask 
him  to  condescend  to  such  base  and  trivial  pursuits  as 
the  research  for  wealth.  At  times  his  absence  was  so 
prolonged  that  we  thought  he  had  vanished  back  to 
the  ring  of  mist,  whence  he  had  come.  But  a  great 
storm  always  brought  him  to  our  huts  again. 

The  summer  waned  into  autumn,  and  the  days  began 
to  narrow  down.  Blasts  from  the  south  grew  keener; 
and  his  flight  from  us  was  more  circumscribed.  We 
saw  him  almost  daily.  When  the  winter  nights  began, 
he  gave  himself  up  again  to  memory.  He  drew  to- 
wards us  in  sympathy,  and  there  were  in  his  narrative 
fewer  and  fewer  reserves.  His  English  became  fuller 
and  more  exact,  though  time  and  again  he  stumbled 
over  thoughts  too  subtle  to  transfuse  into  so  rough  and 
materialistic  a  language.  Our  own  interpretations  of 
his  descriptions  must  often  have  been  mistaken,  we  are 
certain,  and  many  passages  we  have  had  to  omit  be- 
cause of  manifest  ambiguity  or  mistiness  of  expression. 

Godfrey  Swkven. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface iii 

Glossary vii 

I. — My  Awakening i 

II.— My  Education 15 

III.— Sleep,  Rest,  and  Flight 25 

IV. — Hermitry 35 

V.— Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories     .        .51 

VI.—  FlALUME 63 

VII.— Leomarie .88 

VIII. — Rimla 99 

IX. — OOMALEFA 112 

X.— The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense         .        .        .133 

XI.— A  Catastrophe 149 

XII.— Oolorefa 162 

XIII.— The  Lilaran 174 

XIV. — Choktroo 192 

XV. — The  Duomovamolan  or  Cosmophone         .        .219 
XVI.— Their  Heaven  and  their  Hell        .        .        .  230 

XVII.— My  Education  Continued 244 

Postscript 283 

V 

443538 


GLOSSARY 


Ailomo — The  astrobiological  families. 

Airoean — A  sensotueter,  or  instrument  for  finding  the  per- 
sonal equation  of  a  man. 

Aeceirolan — Radiographic  cinematograph;  an  instrument 
combining  microscope,  camera  in  vacuo,  and  electric 
power. 

Alfarene — Oxygen  shrub. 

Ammerein — Historoscope. 

Ciraeaison — Museum  of  terrors. 

Ceevamolan— Combination  of  telescope  and  makrakoust,  or 
distance-hearer. 

Cumolan — Earth-sensor. 

Ceirolan — Instrument  that  combines  electro-microscopy  and 
photography. 

Ceiroeanic — Infinitesimally  microscopic. 

CORFALEENA — Vacuum-engine  car. 

Doomaeona — The  hill  of  farewells. 

Duomovamoean— Instrument  that  interprets  the  music  of  the 
cosmos. 

Erfai^eena — An  ti-gravitation  flight-car. 

Faeeena— Ship  of  the  air. 

FarfaeeEna — Electric  faleena. 

Farosan — Aroma-recorder. 

Fiaeume — The  valley  of  memories. 

Fieammtj— The  will-telegraph. 

Firla— The  electric  sense. 

Firla^ain— The  firlamaic  department  of  Oomalefa. 

Fireamai — The  arts  of  the  electric  sense. 


viii  Glossary 

Firlamaic— Belonging  to  the  arts  of  the  firla. 

Firlaman — A  musical  instrument  that  appeals  to  the  firla. 

Floramo — The  botanical  families. 

Feoronae — The  tree  of  life. 

Fraeoomiamo — The   families  of  pioneers  that   imagine   and 

represent  the  distant  future. 
Germabeee — A   tree  with   fruit  that  makes  the  muscles  and 

cartilage  more  elastic. 
Ideumian— Electric  steriliser. 

Idrolan — Observer  and  magnifier  of  electric  impulses. 
Idrounasan — Machine-reporter  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings 

and  words  of  an  assembly. 
Idrosan — Recorder  of  electric  impulses  and  sensations. 
Idrovamoean — Instrument  for  at  once  seeing  and  hearing  at 

great  distances. 
Iearime— Edifice  devoted  to  the  arts  of  smell,  taste,  and  sound 

combined. 
Imanora — Centennial  review  of  the  civilisation  and  its  progress. 
ImaTaran — The  focusser  of  history. 

Inamar — Instrument  for  splitting  up  light  into  its  constituents. 
Inasan — Recorder  of  luminous  impressions. 
Inoean — Measurer  of  light. 
Ireeium — Irridescent  metal  applicable  to  all  manner  of  purposes 

by  the  Limanorans. 
Labramor — Alloy   of  irelium   that  sponges  up  and    retains 

electricity. 
Labroean  — Instrument  for  drawing  electricity  from  the  air 

and  the  clouds. 
Lavidroean — Camera-telescope. 

Lavoean — Revealer  of  the  inner  tissues  and  mechanism. 
Leomarie — The  science  and  art  of  earth-seeing. 
Leomo — The  families  of  earth-seers. 
Leomoran — The  earth-perforator. 
Lenta — The  minutest  division  of  time  in  Limanora. 
LiEAMO— The  families  that  watch  the  security  of  the  island. 
Liearan— The  storm-cone. 

Liearie — The  science  and  art  of  island-security. 
Linamar — The  analyst  of  sounds. 
L,inasan—  Recorder  and  reproducer  of  sounds. 


Glossary  ix 

Linokear — Spectroscopic  analyst  and  recorder  of  vapours. 

Loomiamo — Families  of  pioneers  who  imagine  and  represent 
the  links  that  connect  the  present  with  the  distant  future. 

Loomiefa — The  theatre  of  futurition. 

Manor  a — Decennial  review  of  the  progress  made  by  the  people. 

Margol — Electric   instrument   for   blending   or  reducing  the 
strength  of  perfumes,  flavours,  and  sounds. 

MiNEEEA — Edifice  for  formula-machines. 

Mirean — Life-lamp  for  revealing  and  recording  internal  pro- 
cesses for  the  use  of  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  electric  sense. 

Moeta — The  Limanorau  measure  of  infinitesimal  length. 

Mo.vai.an — Electrical  distance-analyst. 

Mornalax — Time-telescope. 

Naroeea  —  Dream-stimulants. 

Ooarax — Psych  ometer. 

Ooaromo — Psycho-physiological  families. 

OoLORAN — The  sonarchitect. 

Oolorefa — The  hall  of  sonarchitecture. 

OomaeEFA — Halls  of  nutrition  and  medication. 

Oorolan — Instrument  for  transforming  form  and  colour  into 
melody. 

Pirakno— Machine  for  drawing  electricity  from  space. 

Piramo — The  meteorological  families. 

Rimea — The  centre  of  force. 

Saeosan— The  gustagraph. 

Sarifoean — Instrument  that  interprets  for  sight,  hearing,  and 
the  electric  sense  the  graphic  records  of  the  mirlan. 

Sarmolan — Cosmic  barometer. 

Sidralan — Bionaeter. 

Sidralmo— Bio-chemical  families. 

Sidramo— The  chemical  families. 

Terraeona — The  edifice  of  outlook  into  heaven  and  hell. 
■Thinamar — Visualiser  of  sound. 

TiREEOMORAN— Electric  earth-perforator. 

Tremoean— Electric  clock  indicating  the  changes  of  electricity 
in  various  parts  of  the  island. 

Trevamolan— Graduated  modifier  of  sound. 

Vamoean — Makro-mikrakoust. 

Vimoean — Photo-electric  analyser. 


ERRATA 

Page  31,  line  6.     For  "  resistent  "  read  "  resistant." 
Page  93,  line  16.     For  "maintained"  read  " maimed . " 
Page  155,  line  2.    For  "  I  that  felt  "  read  "  I  had  felt." 
Page  2ir,  lines  13  and  17.     For  "  somnifractive  "  read 

"  somnifactive. " 
Page  230,  line  3.     For  ' '  on  wonted ' '  read ' '  unwonted. ' ' 
Page  348,  last  line.     For  "  rareity  "  read  "  rarity'" 
Page  369,  line   12.      For  "  amosphere  "   read  "atmo- 
sphere." 
Page  377,  line  5.     For  "  its  "  read  "it"'     . 
Page  440.  line  17.      For  "  we  the  saw  "  read  "  we  saw 

the." 
Page  465,  line  8  from  bottom.      For  "thought"  read 
"through." 


LIMANORA 


BOOK  I 

The  Outer  or  Material  Civilisation 


CHAPTER  I 


MY   AWAKENING 

{OPENED  my  eyes  in  a  world  no  feature  of  which  I 
could  recognise.  Everything  around  me  was  of 
the  most  dazzling  beauty.  The  walls  and  vaulted  roof 
of  the  room  where  I  lay  gleamed  like  mosaic-work  of 
lit  jewellery.  The  floors  were  duller,  and  yet  shone 
with  a  coloured  radiance  like  that  in  a  dew-belled 
meadow  under  the  light  of  the  slant-rayed  forenoon 
sun.  The  light  broke  up  in  innumerable  points  and 
corners  of  the  roof  into  a  magnificent  display  of  pris- 
matic colours,  moving  and  changing  every  minute. 
Yet,  with  all  the  marvellous  iridescence,  there  was 
sufficient  shade  in  the  vault  and  walls  to  check  the 
fiery  oppression  of  the  sun.  I  had  dreamt  of  such  fairy 
palaces;    but  the  dream  had  ever   been   abortive   or 


2  Limanora 

glanced  off  into  something  hideous  or  appalling.     Here 
was  architecture  as  unlike  anything  I  had  seen  upon 
earth  as  a  dream,  and  yet  it  had  a  grace  that  no  dream 
♦  had  ever  caught. 

Nor  did  I  know  the  material  of  which  this  room  was 
formed.  It  seemed  like  ice,  yet  was  never  changed  by 
the  fire  of  the  sun.  It  was  capable  of  being  moulded 
into  the  most  delicate  lace-work,  and  yet  could  be 
made  as  massive  as  marble  walls  of  Eastern  palaces 
that  were  built  for  both  pleasure  and  siege.  It  was  in 
portions  as  transparent  as  glass,  and  in  others  frosted 
with  wondrous  pictures.  And  how  were  those  count- 
less domes  and  arches  and  arborescent  columns  pro- 
duced with  such  ease  ?  How  were  those  air}-  galleries 
hung?  How  were  those  fragrant  fountains  poised  so 
nicely  that  an  infant's  finger  seemed  capable  of  over- 
turning them  ?  Even  the  gently  moving  curtains  had 
the  same  crystalline  character  as  the  walls,  now 
frosted  as  by  the  artist  of  our  winter-mornings,  again 
goldenly  dim,  or  rainbow-hued. 

There  was  a  spaciousness  that  reminded  me  of  the 
colonnaded  aisles  of  our  great  cathedrals.  Was  I  rest- 
ing in  one  of  the  temples  of  the  island  ?  Was  I  being 
consecrated  for  sacrifice  ?  And  yet  the  dainty  warm 
nooks,  the  close-hung  curtains,  and  graceful  tapestries 
so  broke  the  awe  and  loneliness  of  the  place  as  to  make 
me  feel  that  it  was  a  chamber  for  a  solitary.  And  I 
could  look  out  upon  the  fields  and  forests  and  the  far- 
stretching  sea;  for  every  foot  of  wall  had  in  it  some 
transparency  that  with  its  landscape  stood  like  a  picture 
framed  in  the  frosted  tracery  around  it.  I  seemed 
never  to  reach  the  limit  of  these  varied  perspectives 
and  distances.  I  sank  back  exhausted  on  my  perfumed 
couch,  then  slowly  recovered  by  aid  of  the  sweetmss 


My  Awakening 


that  met  ray  every  sense.  The  fragrance  that  filled 
the  room  was  like  that  of  finest  garden  flowers,  and 
kept  changing  from  one  lovely  variety  to  another, 
never  cloying  the  sense.  Around,  too,  from  unseen 
sources,  floated  sweet  music,  that  now  swelled  into  a 
chorus,  and  again  fell  into  angelic  softness.  Then  a 
new  sensation  came  to  me;  with  ever}'  breath  I  seemed 
to  draw  in  a  subtle  nourishment  and  stimulation  to  my 
senses;  ever)'  minute  added  to  the  renewal  of  my 
strength.  And,  to  increase  my  delighted  bewilder- 
ment, I  gradually  felt  a  new  sense  appealed  to;  every 
nerve  in  my  bod)'  seemed  exhilarated,  and  I  felt 
capable  of  heroic  actions.  Some  magnetic  influence 
was  raying  towards  me  through  the  atmosphere,  and 
a  dormant  electric  faculty  seemed  to  be  awakened  in 
my  mind  and  in  my  body,  producing  the  effect  of  in- 
toxication without  its  stupor  or  the  numbing  of  the 
moral  powers.  It  was  like  a  beautiful  dream  without 
the  helplessness  of  the  dreamer.  I  felt  no  delirium  or 
voluptuous  languor  from  the  excitement  of  the  senses. 
It  all  led  to  spiritual  vigour,  that  would  have  made  the 
body  its  prompt  ally. 

My  renewed  energies  turned  my  mind  to  my  strange 
surroundings.  I  wondered  where  the  beings  were  who 
had  built  this  wondrous  palace,  and  were  now  doubt- 
less playing  upon  my  senses.  Was  it  all  a  dream  ? 
And  had  I  never  been  shot  into  the  sea  with  Noola  ? 
It  seemed  as  if  my  inmost  thoughts  were  at  once  com- 
municated to  my  watchers;  for  from  some  direction, 
out  of  some  niche  or  doorway  I  had  not  noticed,  moved 
softly  a  figure,  that,  in  its  muscular  breadth,  large 
head,  and  springy  gait,  reminded  me  of  Xoola.  Upon 
the  face  a  smile  shone  out  of  unfathomed  depths  of 
thought  and  sympathy,  and  yet  the  lips  were  close  as 


4  Limanora 

if  to  forbid  speech.  It  was  enough  to  rest  and  gaze  at 
the  beautiful  expression  of  the  face  with  its  intensity 
of  love  and  pity  in  the  eyes.  But  the  features  had  not 
that  symmetry  of  outline  which  we  call  beaut}'  in 
Europe;  and  the  form  was  not  "divinely  tall."  The 
whole  of  the  attraction  lay  in  the  uprayiug  of  the  soul 
into  the  face.  It  was  like  gazing  into  the  limpid  waters 
of  a  lake;  I  tried  to  give  speech  to  my  emotions,  but 
the  hand  rose  gently  to  the  lips  in  a  gesture  that  com- 
manded silence,  then  waved  over  me,  and,  as  I  looked, 
I  fell  into  a  deep  and  dreamless  sleep. 

I  knew  not  how  long  I  had  been  unconscious;  for 
when  I  woke  I  seemed  to  be  a  new  man;  every  faculty 
tingled  with  energy ;  health  glowed  through  my  tissues; 
I  wandered  from  niche  to  niche,  from  arcade  to  recess; 
I  climbed  the  lofty  galleries  and  raised  the  curtains, 
shaking  the  sweet  perfumes  from  them  as  they  swung  in 
the  air  ;  I  ran  from  transparency  to  transparency  with 
the  delight  of  a  child,  and  gazed  through  each  at  the 
ever-varying  landscapes  that  stretched  outwards  to  the 
sea.  Music,  distant  and  entrancing,  floated  around  me 
in  the  air,  with  variations  and  cooling  bars  of  silence,  so 
that  it  made  a  subtle  ether  circumambient  rather  than 
a  definite  impression  on  the  senses.  Under  such  condi- 
tions what  could  not  I  do  in  life  ?  I  remembered  the  old 
weariness  and  despair  that  used  to  cling  around  me  like 
a  shirt  of  Nessus  even  in  the  morning  when  I  was  re- 
freshed with  sleep,  and  the  clogging  humours  that  used 
to  retard  my  most  generous  or  most  energetic  action. 
In  my  former  life  I  had  moved  in  a  clammy  viscous 
medium  that  dragged  back  my  most  eager  faculties. 
Now  I  was  built  of  air,  and  stirred  lightly  as  air. 

What  was  it  that  had  accomplished  this  strange 
transformation  ?     I  had  not  felt  so  in  the  other  islands 


My  Awakening  5 

of  the  archipelago  or  even  on  its  seas.  I  had  not  been 
so  exhilarated  at  my  first  awaking.  How  had  this 
great  change  come  about  ?  Or  was  it  but  momentary. 
to  pass  away  like  other  intoxications  and  leave  ex- 
haustion and  ache  ?  I  began  to  be  puzzled  and  to  feel 
the  return  of  the  thought  that  it  was  perhaps  only  a 
dream  after  all.     How  was  I  to  test  the  matter  ? 

Surely  I  could  not  have  thought  aloud.  Yet  here 
from  somewhere  or  other  was  moving  across  the  floor 
the  figure  that  had  appeared  after  my  first  trance.  I 
was  so  awestruck  by  the  noiseless  flash  of  the  approach 
that  I  could  make  no  sign  of  welcome.  What  could  I 
say  to  a  being  who  came  so  near  to  what  we  consider 
in  the  old  world  the  supernatural  ?  As  soon  as  my 
thoughts  touched  upon  the  state  of  my  mind  aud  the 
circumstances  that  surrounded  me,  my  host  (should  I 
call  him  so?)  appeared.  And,  though  my  senses,  I 
thought,  had  acquired  preternatural  acuteness,  not  a 
sound  had  I  heard  of  his  entrance  or  of  his  footsteps 
across  the  chamber. 

He  seemed  to  know  the  perplexity  of  my  thoughts 
again,  for  he  advanced  with  so  airy  a  grace  that  my 
eyes  were  fascinated  by  the  ease  of  the  motion.  And 
his  words  came  almost  like  music ;  I  scarcely  considered 
what  he  was  saying,  so  beautiful  were  the  tones  aud 
manner  in  which  it  was  said.  "  Come,  aud  I  shall  tell 
you  what  has  occurred,"  was  what  I  understood.  It 
was  in  the  primary  or  simplest  vocabulary  of  Ljmanora, 
the  vocabulary  that  Noola  had  taught  me. 

He  led  me  by  a  covered  but  transparent  way  into  a 
vaulted  chamber,  that  seemed  to  the  other  as  a  cathe- 
dral to  a  chapel;  for  it  was  pillared  and  galleried  and 
aisled  with  the  most  transcendent  art.  But  I  was  too 
interested  in  the  story  he  had  to  tell  to  give  way  to  my 


6  Limanora 

passive  enjoyment  of  the  scene.  He  motioned  me  to 
ascend  with  him  a  platform  that  rose  above  us  in  a 
lofty  recess  at  one  brightly  sunlit  corner  of  the  build- 
ing. I  saw  him  lean  back,  and  feared  that  he  would 
fall  to  the  floor;  but  with  his  motion  the  rich  mosaic  of 
the  platform  opened,  and  a  rest  rose  to  meet  his  body 
which  was  of  the  same  alabaster-like  texture  as  the 
curtains  and  seemed  to  shape  itself  to  every  curve  and 
bend  of  his  figure.  He  stretched  out  his  hand  towards 
me,  and  before  I  knew  what  he  had  done  I  was  resting, 
in  an  attitude  not  far  from  the  upright,  on  a  soft  ma- 
chine like  his  own.  He  showed  me  how  to  control  this 
by  a  knob  under  1113^  right  hand,  and  then  together  we 
flew  to  the  ceiling  and  back,  wheeled  round,  swung 
gently  in  the  air,  or  remained  still.  It  moved  like  a 
thing  of  life  in  sympathy  with  every  desire;  a  slight 
change  of  the  position  would  relieve  an}-  part  of  the 
body  and  yet  leave  all  the  rest  supported;  any  kind  of 
motion  was  accomplished  on  changing  the  screw  that 
lay  in  the  knob.  I  afterwards  investigated  the  mechan- 
ism, and  was  amazed  at  its  simplicity;  a  few  levers, 
cunningly  mastering  all  the  various  combinations  of 
motion,  turned  on  or  off  the  force  needed  for  the  neces- 
sary changes.  After  a  few  hours'  experience  of  it,  I 
could  find  no  comparison  in  nature  but  the  couch  of  air 
on  which  the  albatross  seems  to  rest  as  it  moves.  I 
afterwards  found  that  a  nice  management  of  compressed 
air  was  the  secret  of  this  wonderful  rest  that  was  neither 
couch  nor  chair.  As  soon  as  we  ceased  to  use  it,  it 
disappeared  as  suddenly  as  it  had  risen.  This  ac- 
counted for  the  complete  absence  of  the  furniture  that 
impedes  free  motion  in  our  European  houses  and 
made  me  think  as  I  awoke  in  my  chamber  of  our  great 
cathedrals  with  their  free  floor  space. 


My 


Awakening 


There  in  midair  we  lightly  hung  as  if  resting  on 
wings;  he  seemed  to  know  my  anatomy  and  the  points 
of  greatest  pressure  in  any  attitude,  and  controlled  both 
machine-rests  with  such  adroitness  that  we  swung 
hither  and  thither,  changing  slowly  from  the  recumbent 
to  the  erect  attitude  or  back  again,  finding  every  few 
minutes  a  different  point  of  view  of  the  chamber  or  of 
the  landscapes  that  could  be  seen  through  the  walls. 
But  I  soon  grew  oblivious  to  the  beauty  that  stole 
through  every  sense;  my  whole  consciousness  was  ab- 
sorbed in  watching  the  play  of  the  intelligence  on  his 
face  and  listening  to  his  narrative.  I  missed  many  of 
the  links  in  his  story,  even  though  he  contrived  to  put 
most  of  it  into  the  primary  and  secondary  vocabularies, 
and,  where  he  was  compelled  to  go  beyond  them,  put 
so  much  of  his  thoughts  into  his  features  that  I  could 
almost  have  gathered  it  from  them.  But  I  saw  the 
drift  of  the  story,  and,  when  it  was  over,  pieced  the 
fragments  together  and  found,  when  afterwards  I  knew 
the  language  and  the  civilisation  better,  I  had  missed 
little  of  the  real  meaning.  I  give  it,  then,  as  if  it  were 
in  his  own  words,  although  my  intelligence  seemed  to 
stumble  at  every  step  in  it. 

' '  You  wonder  at  your  hospitable  reception.  But  you 
will  not  wonder  when  you  know  the  change  in  the  con- 
dition of  our  knowledge  since  Noola  was  exiled.  He 
was  unhurt  by  the  ricochet  of  the  missiles  on  the  beach. 
In  the  darkness  they  were  ill-aimed,  and,  though  they 
struck  in  sand,  they  were  shattered  by  the  impact  and 
recoiled  from  the  shingle  underneath.  He  disentan- 
gled himself  from  the  wreck  and  rescued  you.  But 
soon  the  watchers  by  the  storm-cone  were  down  on  the 
beach  and  carried  you  to  our  house,  whilst  they  led 
your  comrade  to  another.     You  were  each  examined 


8  Limanora 

by    the  wise  men  and   the   medical   families.      Your 
faculties  and  emotions  and  tendencies  were  all  tested, 
and  their  various  strengths  measured  by  means  of  the 
different  kinds  of  cerebrometers  whilst  you  slept.     Since 
Noola  was  exiled  a  hundred  years  ago,  our  knowledge 
of  the  brain  and  the  nerves  and  their  various  functions 
has  been  applied  in  the  most  practical  way  to  the  art  of 
living.     Every  curve  and  convolution  of  the  controlling 
instrument  of  the  body  has  its  value  and  meaning  tabu- 
lated.    Every  action,  thought,  and  emotion  has  had  its 
physical  symbol  and  locality  fixed;  and  the  minutest 
change  in  the  strength  of  any  one  of  these  points  in  the 
brain  or  in  the  nervous  system  can  be  discovered  by 
applying  one  of  the  cerebrometers.     You  will  know 
what  these  are  some  day;  but  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
they  can   measure,  by  means  of  a  delicate  apparatus 
controlled  by  electricity,  the  amount  of  force  that  exists 
in  any  living  tissue;  there  is  a  separate  kind  for  each 
portion  of  the  brain  and  each   nerve  section  of  the 
trunk,  and  it  will  move  only  when  near  that  portion 
or  any  living  tissue  that  has  similar  properties  and 
powers.     Our  own  magnetic  sense,  which  has  greatly 
developed  since  Noola's  banishment,  can  roughly  gauge 
the  relative  strengths  of  the  various  faculties  and  emo- 
tions in  any  man;    and  it  is  deeply  thrilled  when  any 
thought  or  passion  is  energising  in  his  nature.     But  it 
cannot  accurately  measure  the  strength,  as  these  in- 
struments can.     We  can  absolutely  trust  them,  in  test- 
ing the  character  of  any  human  being. 

"  Noola  fully  expected  to  be  thrust  back,  unless  he 
came  across  his  own  relations  and  friends,  to  whose 
pity  and  sympathy  he  might  appeal.  He  trembled  in 
alarm  when  he  was  led  to  the  chamber  in  which  he  was 
to  be  tested.     But  it  was  found  that,  though  his  hu- 


My  Awakening  9 

manity  had  not  progressed  in  the  lines  or  with  the 
rapidity  that  the  L,imanorans  have  developed  since  his 
departure,  all  the  atavistic  taint  had  disappeared  from 
his  nature,  and  the  weak  elements  of  his  system,  love, 
pity,  tenderness,  sympathy,  had  greatly  strengthened. 
He  could  no  longer  by  any  possibility  side  with  the 
warlike  and  revengeful  in  human  nature. 

"  But  even  if  he  had  only  kept  the  evil  qualities  in 
abeyance,  in  the  state  they  showed  before  his  exile,  we 
should  have  let  him  return  ;  for  with  his  strong  de- 
sire to  keep  pace  with  our  advance  and  his  regret  for 
his  retrogression,  he  would  have  gladly  submitted 
himself  to  our  new  creative  surgery.  Our  increased 
knowledge  of  the  functions  and  constitution  of  the 
brain  and  nervous  system  enables  us  to  reduce  or  ex- 
cise any  portion  that  interferes  with  the  development 
of  the  individual.  And  we  can  also  stimulate  or  retard 
the  activity  of  any  part  by  placing  the  patient  in  any 
of  our  medicated  atmospheres  specially  adapted  to  his 
circumstances,  and  making  him  breathe  in  the  element 
required  by  his  system. 

"  Noola  is  now  supremely  happy  in  the  confidence 
that  he  is  to  be  allowed  to  remain.  Every  defect  in 
his  system  has  been  tested  and  measured,  and  he  knows 
how  far  he  has  fallen  behind  our  race.  He  would  have 
accepted  any  conditions,  and  in  order  to  overtake  us  is 
willing  to  enter  upon  a  new  education, — the  abbrevia- 
tion of  the  slow  and  painful  advance  of  many  ages  into 
the  hurried  pace  of  a  few  years.  He  wishes,  though 
three  hundred  years  of  age,  to  become  a  child  again 
and  return  to  his  first  century.  But  his  long  and  painful 
self-discipline  in  Broolyi  has  shortened  the  process; 
and  he  will  soon  be  able  to  keep  step  with  his  old  com- 
rades.    He  will  be  aided  in  every  way  by  the  wise  men, 


io  Limanora 

some  of  whom  will  give  their  best  wisdom  and  energies 
to  him.  All  the  physical  arts  we  have  will  be  brought 
into  play  to  shorten  his  term  of  probation,  our  creative 
surgery  and  medicine,  our  arts  for  the  development  of 
tissue  and  nerve,  our  magnetic  arts  for  the  development 
of  the  senses,  and  our  ethical  arts  for  the  development 
of  the  spiritual  sensitiveness. 

"For  yourself  he  has  pleaded,  and,  though  our  wise 
men  have  recognised  that  you  are  thousands  of  years 
in  the  rear  of  our  civilisation,  and  have  confirmed  their 
recognition  by  scientific  measurement  of  the  forces  and 
elements  in  you,  they  have  consented  to  let  you  remain 
and  to  take  your  education  in  hand.  It  seems  an 
almost  impossible  task  to  contract  thousands  of  years 
into  tens;  but  they  do  not  despair;  for  our  system  of 
education  has  already  accomplished  this  for  children 
born  amongst  us,  and  you  have  a  nature  peculiarly 
open  to  our  educational  influences.  You  have  first  of 
all  the  passion  for  progress  as  strongly  in  you  as  in  any 
of  ourselves;  and  this  is  the  prime  essential  of  our 
ethics  and  civilisation;  to  it  all  other  passions  must 
yield;  from  it  flows  all  that  subdues  the  material  world 
and  gives  dominance  to  the  spirit,  and  makes  for 
righteousness.  But  with  it  often  go  pride  and  arro- 
gance. In  you  was  found  strongly  developed  the  desire 
to  treat  all  good  men  as  equals,  whatever  difference  of 
capacity  or  position  or  possessions  might  seem  to  sepa- 
rate them  from  you.  Had  you  had  even  the  slightest 
tinge  of  contemptuousness  or  hauteur  in  you,  )'ou 
would  have  been  sternly  repelled.  To  contemn  is  the 
mark*  of  an  incurably  savage  nature,  a  nature  incapable 
of  true  knowledge  of  itself  and  of  its  relations  to  life. 
From  these  two  desires  come  purity  of  thought  and  life, 
the  love  of  peace,  respect  for  the  rights  of  others  and 


My  Awakening  u 

reverence  for  what  is  fine  in  their  personality,  and  abso- 
kite  transparency  of  nature.  This  last  we  ever  take  to 
oe  the  shortest  and  truest  test  of  a  progressive  charac- 
ter, the  love  of  truth  and  simplicity,  complete  harmony 
of  word  and  act  with  the  inmost  thought.  As  long  as 
a  man  or  a  nation  lacks  this,  there  can  be  no  real  ad- 
vance; what  seems  advance  is  but  a  mirage  of  fame  or 
glory.  Accuracy  of  vision  and  of  prevision  is  the  first 
condition  of  true  progress.  It  was  one  of  the  first 
things  that  Noola  saw  in  you,  and  the  first  reason  he 
urged  for  your  retention;  you  had  no  desire  to  conceal 
your  thoughts,  so  closely  did  the}'  tally  with  your  life; 
you  had  an  overwhelming  passion  for  truth  and  for  the 
truthful. 

'  There  was  no  need  to  distrust  his  assertions  for 
we  all  felt  how  genuine  he  had  become;  and  even  sick 
and  unconscious  as  you  were,  our  magnetic  sense  told 
us  that  bis  description  of  you  was  correct.  But  it  has 
become  the  custom  to  test  scientifically  the  nature  of 
every  inhabitant  of  our  island  every  week,  and  also  at 
every-  crisis  in  his  nature  or  in  the  history  of  the  com- 
munity, in  order  that  any  incipient  defect  may  be  at 
once  remedied,  and  that  drastic  applications  may  never 
be  needed.  A  complete  survey  of  your  character  and 
faculties  and  corporeal  system  was  the  first  step  towards 
your  admission  into  the  community.  Everything  had 
to  be  known,  in  order  that  your  education  should  be 
mapped  out.  And  the  cerebrometers  gave  us  a  favour- 
able report  of  you.  Your  body  and  your  working 
faculties  are  far  iu  the  rear  of  ours;  you  lack  trans- 
parency of  tissue,  ethereality  of  motion;  the  material 
side  of  you  is  earthy  and  ponderous.  These  elements 
of  retrogression  we  shall  never  be  able  to  eject  wholly 
from  your  system;  but  we  shall  be  able  to  modify  them, 


12  Limanora 

and  in  your  children  and  your  children's  children  the 
body  will  keep  pace  with  the  spirit.  The  forwardness 
of  your  emotions,  of  3'our  soul,  is  what  has  drawn  us 
to  you;  you  love  the  ideal  and  imaginative  more  than 
any  but  one  section  of  our  community;  and  you  have 
an  intermixture  of  the  finer  spiritual  elements  such  as 
we  have  either  lost  or  never  had  amongst  us.  We  hope 
to  graft  your  nature  upon  one  of  the  divisions  or  castes 
of  our  race  and  so  produce  in  the  next  generation  a 
variety  that  we  need.  Your  retention  has  thus  been 
justified  by  the  highest  morality  of  our  civilisation. 
We  never  take  anj-  step  without  reference  to  the  ulti- 
mate aims  of  our  progress:  so  to  improve  the  breed 
that  our  posterity  may  feel  nearer  to  the  highest  life  in 
the  universe. 

"Your  education  has  indeed  already  begun.  We 
have  assumed  from  your  highly  disciplined  and  pro- 
gressive spirit  that  you  would  be  willing  to  submit  to 
those  medical  methods  that  shorten  the  already  abbre- 
viative  process  of  education.  It  is  true  that  these 
make  an  enormous  drain  upon  the  physical  strength 
for  a  time;  and  we  prefer  the  ordinary  spiritual  methods 
of  training.  But  you  have  gained  from  the  open-air 
employments  in  which  you  have  passed  your  life  great 
stores  of  bodily  health  and  vigour.  You  are  still  but  a 
child.  The  period  of  childhood  and  tutelage  extends 
with  us  to  the  thirtieth,  sometimes  to  the  fiftieth,  year, 
that  of  youth  to  beyond  the  hundredth.  At  the  time 
that  other  men  are  preparing  to  die  the  natural  death 
of  old  age,  we  are  just  beginning  to  feel  what  it  is  to 
live. 

"  And  from  some  ancestral  cause  you  are  developed 
beyond  your  }-ears  in  some  of  our  ethical  lines.  You 
have  reached  a  humility  before  the  living  forces  of  the 


My  Awakening  13 

universe  which  is  the  primary  mark  of  the  true  governor 
of  the  world.  How  you  have  attained  so  rare  a  virtue 
amidst  the  pretentious  barbarity  of  civilisation  it  is  not 
easy  to  conceive.  There  worldliness  and  arrogance  in- 
herit the  earth,  though  there  are  not  signs  wanting 
that  they  feel  the  approaching  triumph  of  its  true  heirs 
and  mask  as  the  meeker  virtues.  In  older  times  they 
were  not  ashamed  to  show  themselves  as  they  really 
were  ;  for  those  were  the  days  of  glorified  highway- 
men who  seized  the  throne  of  the  world.  Conquest  is 
nothing  but  successful  brigandage  on  a  large  scale, 
veneer  it  over  with  diplomacy  and  historical  fame  as 
you  will.  But  for  centuries  there  has  been  an  uneasy 
feeling  abroad  that  the  humble  must  come  to  their 
rights  some  day ;  and  so  the  gilded  brigands  have  allied 
themselves  with  a  religion  of  the  meek  and  despised, 
that  they  may  hoodwink  mankind  into  acquiescence  in 
their  ancient  dishonesty. 

"We  banished  all  the  makings  of  monarchs,  aris- 
tocracies, and  great  men  at  the  purifications  of  our 
•people.  We  could  see  no  difference  between  these  and 
the  worst  criminals  except  one  of  degree.  We  meas- 
ured their  skulls  and  brains  by  the  rough,  unscientific 
methods  we  used  to  have,  and  found  in  them  almost  no 
difference  from  those  of  murderers  and  thieves;  and 
comparing  them  with  the  skulls  of  savages  and  of  our 
own  far-back  ancestry,  we  found  that  in  the  case  of 
both  heroes  and  criminals  the  cause  of  their  likeness 
to  each  other  was  their  recoil  upon  the  footsteps  of  the 
past,  and  away  from  the  line  of  human  progress  which 
leads  towards  harmony  with  the  higher  laws  of  the 
universe. 

"  Happily  for  you  every  trace  of  such  arrogance  and 
contempt  and  ambition  is  absent  from  your  system. 


H  Limanora 

You  have  nothing  merely  mimetic  in  you;  you  live 
unashamed  and  truthful  in  presence  of  all  that  the 
world  is  capable  of  being.  It  is  one  of  the  surest  signs 
of  fear  of  threatening  annihilation  that  a  species  has  to 
simulate  the  appearance  or  the  modes  of  life  of  another. 
Hypocrisy  in  the  human  race,  like  mimicry  in  the  kinds 
of  animals  and  plants,  is  the  brand  of  feebleness  and 
the  omen  of  coming  decay  and  subjugation.  We  use 
truth  and  sincerity  as  one  of  the  most  inward  of  tests 
of  a  strong  and  healthy  nature.  In  the  olden  days,  as 
in  all  large  and  mixed  civilisations,  it  was  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  imitation  virtue  from  the  real,  and 
when  it  was  discovered  it  was  easy  to  pardon  it  and 
even  accept  it  as  a  virtue  amid  the  universal  effort  at 
simulation.  But  when  we  had  swept  out  the  survivals 
of  primitive  and  savage  times  and  the  atavistic  returns 
to  them,  we  found  that  every  need  of  mimetic  virtue 
had  disappeared.  The  slightest  taint  of  unreality  or 
falsehood  in  any  of  our  community  is  as  offensive  as 
carrion;  we  rise  in  a  body  and  have  it  removed.  And 
we  have  as  keen  an  enjoyment  of  sincerity  and  truth- 
fulness. Your  loyal  character  at  once  attracted  us  to 
you;  we  felt  that  all  germs  of  moral  disease  would  lose 
their  virulence  within  its  influence,  as  germs  of  physi- 
cal disease  lose  theirs  in  sunshine." 


CHAPTER   II 


MY    EDUCATION 


THE  strain  on  my  attention  had  been  extreme  as  I 
tried  to  follow  his  explanations.  It  was  not 
merely  the  words  that  were  unfamiliar,  but  the  very 
manner  of  the  thoughts.  I  had  not  felt  how  exhausted 
my  tissues  were  growing,  or  how  soothing  was  the  in- 
fluence of  the  perfumes  and  soft  music.  I  had  been 
deeply  moved  by  the  joy  of  my  acceptance  by  this 
strange  community  and  by  the  profound  truths  woven 
into  the  fabric  of  its  civilisation.  Imperceptibly  the 
mist  of  dreams  stole  over  me.  I  was  not  even  con- 
scious of  the  gesture  of  his  hand.  I  thought  that  I  had 
fallen  back  again  into  the  darkness  of  Western  civilisa- 
tion, and  yet  that  my  Umanoran  guardian  was  silently 
hovering  round  me,  protecting  me  amid  the  horrors  of 
the  reality.  I  seemed  to  be  present  at  a  court  scene, 
where  the  monarch  and  his  ablest  statesmen  and  sol- 
diers were  welcoming  a  hero  back  from  a  victorious 
campaign  that  had  added  a  great  province  to  the 
kingdom.  There  were  shoutings  and  huzzas  without, 
whilst  within  strains  of  triumphant  music  alternated 
with  bowings  and  ceremonies  from  the  gorgeously  robed 
officials.  In  some  strange  way  I  thought  that  it  was 
I  who  was  being  lauded.     Conscious  of  the  tens  of 

15 


1 6  Limanora 

thousands  left  dead  upon  my  battle-fields,  I  loathed  it 
all  ;  for  by  some  soul-magie,  perchance  my  Ljmanorau 
influence,  the  hearts  of  eulogists  and  courtiers  were 
laid  bare  before  my  eyes,  all  (there  was  not  an  excep- 
tion) black  with  envy  and  designings;  the  king  himself 
was  sick  of  me  and  my  honours,  even  as  he  showered 
them  on  me.  I  knew  the  pitfalls  and  intrigues  pre- 
pared for  me;  I  saw  the  whole  mass  of  humanity,  both 
lacquered  and  tattered,  that  was  now  cheering,  hiss  and 
groan  at  me  as  I  fell ;  and  I  turned  away  from  the  ap- 
plauding crowd  and  looked  into  the  homes  of  my  dead 
soldiers,  and  I  heard  the  weeping  and  despair  of  the 
widow  with  her  orphans  and  the  mother  bereft  of  her 
children  in  their  prime.  Here  the  depths  of  sorrow 
were  its  surface  too.  What  was  there  to  my  credit  in 
the  book  of  time  ? 

Then  with  sudden  transformation  I  saw  the  crowd 
swaying  like  billows  before  the  wind;  every  inch  of 
space  on  the  floor  of  the  vast  cathedral  was  filled  with 
an  adoring  multitude,  tears  falling  from  the  eyes  of 
every  up-turned  face.  What  could  not  be  done  with  a 
mass  of  humanity  so  filled  with  passion  for  the  highest ! 
None  too  large  were  the  vaulted  aisles  and  nave  for  the 
tremulous  thunder  of  the  anthem.  It  seemed  as  if 
the  dome  of  the  sanctuar)r  would  open  and  the  Deity 
would  reveal  Himself  to  His  rapt  suppliants.  Then  the 
music  died  away  and  silence  magnetised  the  people 
and  drew  down  the  influence  of  heaven  upon  them. 
And  it  was  I  that  was  in  the  pulpit,  seeming  a  feeble 
and  sinful  thing  beside  this  divinely  inspired  multitude. 
Could  I  do  aught  but  still  their  quivering  hearts? 

With  sudden  impulse  my  voice  rang  out  in  the 
cadences  of  the  great  organ  as  I  raised  their  thoughts 
to  the  cross  over  the  altar  where  hung  the  One  who 


My  Education  17 

was  rejected  and  despised  of  men.  I  painted  the 
poverty  and  neglect  and  scorn  of  the  life  of  the  Man  of 
Sorrows.  They  wept  as  I  bent  their  thoughts  to  the 
weary  mission  of  this  lofty  spirit  amongst  men,  and 
His  despair  as  He  saw  them  turn  in  contempt  from  Him. 
The  death  of  torture  that  marked  the  close  of  His  so- 
journ here  was  as  nothing  to  the  crucifixion  of  the 
spirit  that  He  bore  each  day  from  the  cold  neglect  or 
the  supercilious  sneer  with  which  His  message  was  met. 
None  but  lowly  fishermen  would  accept  His  divine 
teachings.  And  never  a  murmur  issued  from  His  lips. 
Heart-broken  and  martyred  in  soul,  the  crown  of  thorns 
was  a  fit  close  to  His  career.  I  seemed  to  hold  the  great 
assemblage  in  the  hollow  of  my  hand.  The  sound  of 
weeping  rose,  while  with  love  and  adoration  they 
gazed  on  the  crowned  agony  as  it  hung  on  the  cross. 

Then  I  blessed  the  people  and  left  the  pulpit,  my  heart 
hard  and  dry  within  me,  when  an  alien  sound  broke 
upon  m}T  ear  from  the  farther  end  of  the  great  aisle.  A 
commotion  arose,  and  before  many  minutes  the  whole 
mass  of  worshippers  had  joined  in  the  passionate  dis- 
cord. There  was  a  conflict  about  some  centre  that  was 
moving  upwards  from  the  door.  Before  I  could  regain 
the  pulpit,  a  bruised  and  bleeding  body  had  been  raised 
above  the  sea  of  heads  upon  a  cross  against  one  of  the 
huge  pillars.  A  cry  of  execration  rose  from  the  whole 
church.  It  was  useless  to  attempt  interference,  for  my 
voice  could  not  be  heard  in  the  tumult.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  insults  and  buffetings  had  accomplished 
their  work;  the  wounded,  bleeding  head  sank  upon 
the  breast  of  the  figure  on  the  cross;  his  spirit  had 
fled.  It  was  a  preaching  reformer  of  the  town,  who 
was  accounted  a  madman  for  his  enthusiasm.  He 
had  fallen  into  some  controversy  and  had  shown  his 


1 8  Limanora 

opponents  the  gross  and  material  nature  of  their  wor- 
ship, insulting  to  a  Deity  who  was  pure  spirit  ;  he  had 
prophesied  the  downfall  of  all  their  gorgeous  churches 
and  ceremonials,  and  the  substitution  of  silent  reverence 
within  the  temple  of  the  heart.  They  had  taken  his 
prophesy  as  an  insult  to  the  Christ  and  His  church. 
Fleeing  to  the  sanctuary  to  be  safe  from  the  furious 
attack  of  the  crowd,  they  had  followed  him  and  with  a 
few  hurried  words  had  enlisted  the  worshippers  within 
against  the  blasphemer.     And  this  had  been  the  result. 

As  I  looked  at  the  blood-stained  features,  there 
seemed  to  gather  round  the  head  a  halo  of  light  as  of 
a  crown  of  thorns.  I  was  struck  with  a  strange  re- 
semblance and  glancing  back  at  the  altar,  saw  the  faces 
were  the  same.  This  passionate  devotion  to  a  dead 
Christ  had  found  Him  in  living  form  and  had  crucified 
Him  again. 

I  was  appalled  at  the  thought  of  all  the  centuries 
having  passed  for  naught.  Not  one  step  upward  had 
been  made.  No  nearer  were  the  multitude  to  recog- 
nising their  Saviour  when  He  came  in  the  form  of  living 
man.  There  seemed  to  be  nothing  to  live  for,  if  this 
were  the  end  of  the  agonising  toil  of  the  ages. 

How  sweet  it  was  when  I  awoke  to  find  it  was  but  a 
dream,  and  that  I  was  not  in  Christendom  but  in 
Limanora  !  I  was  alone,  but  there  was  the  sense  of 
comradeship  around  me.  I  found  afterwards  that  the 
wise  men  of  the  medical  caste  had  been  electrising  por- 
tions of  my  brain  as  I  lay  asleep.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  my  education,  which  was  to  go  on  even  in  sleep, 
moulding  dreams  that  should  modify  my  whole  nature. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  part  of  the  growth  of  the 
spirit  is  during  the  hours  of  rest,  when  the  past  or 
future  may  enter  the  vacant  mind.     My  imagination 


My  Education  19 

had  been  sent  out  on  its  travels  into  my  past  and  had 
found  its  way  into  the  heart  of  Western  ambitions  and 
hypocrisies.  Thus  the  wise  men  had  perceived  by 
their  electric  sense  the  dreams  that  had  oppressed  me, 
and  they  drew  from  them  the  master- sorrows  of  my 
past. 

Half  of  the  success  of  education  depends  upon  the 
most  intimate  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  soul  to 
be  educated,  a  knowledge  more  intimate  than  the  soul 
itself  can  have;  else  the  educator  will  be  alarmed  and 
defeated  by  the  surprises  of  survivals  or  resurrections. 
It  is  not  the  history  of  the  mere  incidents  of  life,  of 
even  spiritual  life,  from  birth  that  is  needed,  but  the 
unrecorded  history  of  the  mental  and  emotional  tissues 
of  a  countless  ancestry.  And  no  annals  could  reveal 
this  so  well  as  the  dream-flashes  of  the  night.  They 
are  brief  as  the  tremors  of  lightning,  but  they  illumi- 
nate a  midnight  world,  a  glimpse  of  which  is  as  great 
as  an  inspiration.  "  Night  is  the  confessional  of  the 
unknown";  "Sleep  uuburies  the  dead";  "Dreams 
kaleidoscope  the  vanished  past."  These  are  three  of 
their  world-old  sayings,  which  were  striking  at  first, 
but  after  I  knew  their  exact  science  of  somnology,  be- 
came as  commonplace  to  me  as  they  were  to  the 
Limanorans. 

This  science,  like  all  their  sciences,  was  practical 
and  but  the  other  side  of  an  art;  it  was  one  of  the  most 
helpful  auxiliaries  of  education.  It  had  classified  all 
types  of  dreams,  and  found  the  inner  test  of  truth  in 
them.  Though  seemingly  capricious,  to  these  medical 
wise  men  not  a  dream  occurred  but  had  its  significance 
in  the  life  of  the  individual.  They  could  touch  any 
section  of  the  brain  tissue  into  dream-activity  during 
sleep  by  means  of  their  magnetic  and  electric  probes 


20  Limanora 

and  stimulators;  they  could  feel  by  their  own  electric 
sense  all  that  was  flashing  through  the  corridors  of 
sleep;  and,  with  their  electrographs  could  take  an  exact 
image  of  every  portion  of  the  dream. 

Dreams,  they  held,  made  men  children  again,  with 
their  souls  upon  their  skins,  so  absolutely  transparent 
did  they  render  the  nature,  so  free  from  convention 
and  the  mask  of  policy.  And  what  was  best  of  all, 
the  shadows  of  the  past,  at  times  of  the  primeval  past, 
answered  to  their  call  and  played  upon  the  mind  during 
sleep.  "  We  are  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of" 
was  a  saying  of  our  own  far-seeing  dramatist's  which 
often  came  into  my  mind  as  I  looked  into  their  som- 
nology.  Into  the  making  of  our  bodies  and  our  brain- 
tissues  go  elements  from  all  the  ages  of  our  human  and 
animal  past,  ages  buried  beyond  the  reach  of  history  or 
speculation.  The}'  enter  subtly  into  the  tissue  of  our 
life,  though  we  are  all  unconscious  of  the  process. 
And  these  elements  are  the  stuff  that  goes  to  the  mak- 
ing of  dreams  as  well.  But  in  the  dream-world  there 
is  no  central  personality,  no  will  to  control  or  trans- 
form, no  mask  to  wear,  no  power  to  conceal.  We  are 
ofttimes  ashamed  of  our  dreams  because  they  are  so  un- 
consciously naked  in  their  savagery  or  even  animality. 

Nor  is  it  an  uncommon  or  unnatural  thing  that 
dreams  foreshadow  incidents  in  the  after-life  of  the  in- 
dividual ;  for  they  bring  into  play  elements  in  his 
nature  that  he  has  never  been  conscious  of  and  whose 
existence  he  would  stoutly  deny.  Then,  when  the 
favouring  circumstance  or  set  of  conditions  brings  these 
elements  into  action,  he  is  startled  to  remember  how 
close  the  long-forgotten  dream  had  come  to  the  un- 
imagined  reality.  If  only  he  had  known  how  much  it 
had  meant,  as  it  entered  on  the  theatre  of  sleep  and 


My  Education  21 

then  vanished,  he  might  have  been  forewarned  and 
have  avoided  the  opportunity  for  its  reappearance  on 
the  stage  of  life. 

And  the  Linianoran  medical  sages  had  taken  ad- 
vantage of  this  prophetic  provision  of  nature.  They 
systematically  tested  every  fibre  and  cell  of  the  brain 
of  each  individual  they  had  to  educate  and  develop, 
and  without  hesitation  or  error  found  out  every  pos- 
sibility of  his  nature.  They  tested  and  tabulated  the 
results  of  every  electric  stimulus  and  every  dream  that 
followed  it,  and  by  this  means  had  a  complete  natural 
history  of  all  his  ancestral  past.  No  revolution  could 
happen  in  the  state  of  any  Linianoran,  nothing  of  what 
we  mean  by  conversion.  It  has  sometimes  been  said  in 
the  science  of  the  West  that  there  are  two  brains  or 
physical  organs  of  soul  in  every  man,  and  this  explains 
the  strange  actions  and  reactions,  conversions  and  re- 
coils that  so  often  occur  in  life.  But  it  is  far  truer  that 
there  are  a  hundred  brains  in  ever}'  man,  and  that  his 
brain  is  composed  of  elements  out  of  all  his  ancestry, 
even  his  far-back  animal  ancestry;  and  it  all  depends  on 
the  stimulus  which  of  those  brains  or  ancestral  brain- 
elements  will  come  uppermost.  The  Limanorans  had 
millions  of  sun  pictures  of  their  own  exiles  and  of  the 
various  peoples  of  the  rest  of  the  world  in  innumerable 
attitudes  and  situations,  and  with  expressions  on  their 
faces  unconsciously  worn  ;  and  they  could  point  out 
in  each  the  predominating  animal.  In  going  over  the 
memories  of  the  men  and  women  I  had  known  I  could 
recall  times  when  the  look  of  some  animal  had  come 
out  strongly  on  their  faces.  I  had  had,  to  my  mis- 
fortune, much  acquaintance  with  the  serpent  nature, 
the  most  predominant  in  an  unwisely  progressive  civili- 
sation like  that  of  Western  Europe  where  convention 


22  Limanora 

and  custom  and  law  become  the  opportunity  and  the 
mask  of  characters  fallen  far  into  the  rear  of  progress. 
When  laggard  natures  are  not  monasticised  and  pre- 
vented from  breeding,  a  progressive  people  get  overrun 
with  hypocrisy;  under  convention  and  custom  and  law 
they  take  shelter  and  there  is  no  power  that  can  drive 
them  out;  the  finer  phases  of  civilisation,  industry,  art, 
learning,  speculation,  morality,  religion,  become  their 
nesting-ground.  At  last  the  serpent  nature  is  accepted 
as  the  type,  provided  there  is  not  too  fatal  a  sting  in  it. 
The  religious  legends  mirror  this  serpent-like  develop- 
ment. The  serpent  is  the  spirit  of  evil  which  caused 
their  degeneration  from  the  godlike.  The  serpent  they 
see  everywhere,  even  when  it  has  disappeared  from 
their  own  land.  Their  greatest  successes  in  any  sphere 
are  by  means  of  serpent-like  subtlety,  whilst  they  still 
profess  to  worship  the  ideal  of  truth  and  candour  aban- 
doned by  them  in  the  far  past.  In  practice  it  is  the 
qualities  of  the  serpent  they  embody  and  develop  ;  in 
theory  they  worship  its  foe  and  conqueror. 

The  Limanoran  sages  explain  this  reappearance  of 
animal  natures  in  human  civilisations  and  individuals 
by  showing  how  the  elements  of  all  exist  in  infinitesimal 
germ  in  the  most  primitive  form  of  animal  life;  as  this 
crept  up  the  scale,  certain  elements  grew  stronger  and 
led  to  new  species  still  retaining  the  others  in  subordi- 
nation; at  each  higher  and  higher  division  of  the  vital 
way  the  elements  became  more  vigorous  and  more  dis- 
tinct in  their  characteristics;  it  is  therefore  traces  of 
the  higher  animals  that  are  most  apt  to  appear  in  man. 
And  the  only  means  of  ridding  these  of  their  retrogres- 
sive influence  is  to  make  the  newer  and  higher  spiritual 
qualities  more  dominant.  The  first  rule  of  a  civilisation 
that  means  to  advance  in  reality  and  not  in  mere  ap- 


My  Education  23 

pearance  is  to  monasticise  all  atavistic  natures  and  pre- 
vent them  from  handing  on  their  retrogression  to  a 
posterity;  the  second  is  to  encourage  only  the  higher 
and  more  spiritual  features  of  those  that  remain. 

It  took  many  months  to  examine  and  catalogue  my 
powers  and  tendencies.  I  often  awoke  unconscious  or 
with  a  confused  recollection  of  the  dreams  they  had 
stimulated  and  recorded.  The  first  few  were  most  dis- 
tinct, and  seemed  to  follow  me  when  I  waked  with  the 
reality  and  perspective  of  life.  But  I  could  not  interpret 
them;  they  seemed  fanciful  and  capricious,  and  when  I 
puzzled  over  them,  yielded  nothing.  And  yet,  when  I 
saw  my  dream-confession  and  autobiography,  I  was 
startled  with  the  truth  of  its  great  features;  thoughts 
that  I  had  never  uttered  to  mortal  ear  were  there;  words 
that  had  been  spoken  in  the  secrecy  of  confidence  far  off 
in  my  village  home  were  recorded;  actions  light  and 
insignificant  had  their  due  place,  and  seemed  to  have 
new  and  infinite  meaning  in  their  new  setting.  So 
circumstantial  were  the  details  of  much  of  my  past  life 
and  character  that  I  could  not  but  accept  the  rest  as 
absolute  truth.  And  what  a  strange  array  of  facts  it 
was!  Parts  of  my  immediate  ancestral  history  I  knew, 
more  I  had  conjectured,  some  I  could  never  have 
guessed  at  ;  but  here  it  was  spread  out  as  on  a  map, 
with  every  new  advance  or  retrogression  any  progenitor 
had  accomplished  or  suffered.  I  seemed  to  see  my 
inner  nature  photographed  and  by  the  light  of  a  magic- 
lantern. 

At  first,  when  I  saw  it  stand  out  detail  after  detail  in 
lifelike  truthfulness,  I  felt  in  the  presence  of  some 
supernatural  power.  But  when  I  came  to  know  the 
methods  they  had  employed,  it  seemed  as  simple  as  a 
child's  puzzle.     Every  conclusion  had  been  reached  in 


24 


Limanora 


the  most  scientific  way.  All  the  minutiae  of  every 
dream  had  been  faithfully  recorded  and  microscopically 
examined.  Then  they  were  tabulated  and  compared 
with  the  most  untiring  industry.  And  out  of  the 
shapeless  mass  had  come  by  the  aid  of  their  logical 
methods  or  dream-tests  the  clear,  unquestionable  truth. 
Their  brilliant,  but  by  no  means  reckless,  imaginations 
did  the  rest,  evolving  order  and  lifelikeness  out  of 
seemingly  barren  and  confused  facts.  It  is  true,  they 
did  not  make  any  attempt  at  the  chronology  of  the 
past;  they  had  been  able  only  to  group  the  facts  in 
great  spaces  of  time,  and  in  a  certain  order  of  develop- 
ment. Their  minute  knowledge  of  the  evolution  of  life, 
and  especially  of  human  life,  gave  them  the  framework 
for  this  grouping.  I  was  astonished  at  the  quickness 
of  their  work,  when  I  considered  the  fulness  of  the 
natural  history  of  my  mind  and  character;  it  seemed 
as  if  they  should  have  taken  years  and  not  months  to 
investigate  with  such  care  every  atom  and  cell  of  the 
tissue  of  my  brain. 


CHAPTER   III 


SLEEP,    REST,    AND    FLIGHT 


I  COULD  not  but  surrender  myself  into  the  hands  of 
men  whose  wisdom  seemed  to  me  to  approach  om- 
niscience; and  this  I  was  the  more  inclined  to  do  that 
I  felt,  instead  of  exhaustion  from  their  operations  on 
my  brain  during  sleep,  the  greatest  sense  of  exhilara- 
tion I  had  ever  experienced  in  my  life.  They  acted 
on  the  principle  of  giving  complete  rest  to  one  set  of 
nerves  and  tissues  by  stimulating  the  others.  They 
could  produce  the  deepest  sleep  in  all  the  brain-  and 
nerve-centres  by  gathering  the  life-energy  that  remains 
during  sleep  into  one  minute  point,  which  they  stimu- 
lated by  magnetism. 

They  smiled  at  the  clumsy  methods  of  resting  that 
Western  civilisation  had  adopted,  the  awkward,  un- 
yielding beds  and  chairs  and  sofas,  and  the  wasteful 
and  futile  attempts  at  exercise  that  were  meant  to  give 
rest.  Ages  ago  they  had  banished  dancing  and  all 
corybantic  amusements  as  extravagant  waste  of  tissue,, 
destroying  a  hundred  cells  or  nerves  for  every  one  that 
they  saved  or  invigorated.  All  frantic  and  violent  ex- 
ercise encouraged  the  animal  part  at  the  expense  of  the 
progressive:  it  mangled  and  rent  the  delicate  tissues 
of  the  brain  and  heart,  and  sent  the  currents  of  suste- 
nance into  the  muscles  and  bones  of  the  legs  and  arms. 

25 


26  Limanora 

The  riding  and  hunting  and  athletics  of  the.aristocracies 
only  helped  the  animal  to  persist,  and  clearly  identified 
their  ancestry  with  the  conquering  nomad  hordes  that 
swept  down  on  the  peaceful  plains  and  destroyed  primi- 
tive civilisations.  Exercise,  they  held,  should  help,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  increase  the  store  of  energy  to  be 
transformed  into  the  higher  elements,  and  on  the  other 
to  rest  the  spiritual  forces  and  faculties. 

Rational  rest  was  one  of  the  great  secrets  of  the  pro- 
longation of  life.  There  was  a  latent  passion  in  living 
things  for  rest:  and  this  rose  to  its  highest  in  man.  To 
balk  it  was  to  shorten  the  career  of  all  the  powers.  And 
they  had  set  themselves  to  understand  this  passion  and 
the  methods  for  its  satisfaction  as  one  of  the  first  duties 
of  an  advancing  people.  They  knew  that  there  never 
could  be  any  complete  rest  for  a  living  system  short  of 
death.  Even  in  the  soundest  sleep  the  functions  pro- 
ceeded, though  feebly,  and  there  was  a  misty  conscious- 
ness of  existence;  else  it  would  lapse  into  annihilation. 
They  realised  that  they  must  provide  for  many  grada- 
tions of  rest  between  the  edge  of  death  and  the  border- 
land of  full  activity.  Nor  should  any  portion  or  element 
of  the  human  system  go  long  without  its  period  of  rest 
and  its  period  of  exercise. 

On  these  principles  they  built  their  methods  of  alter- 
nating rest  and  activity,  all  duly  subordinated  to  their 
great  aim, — the  advance  of  the  higher  nature.  The 
only  reason  for  muscular  pursuits  was  that  the  intellect 
and  the  imagination  might  be  relaxed  and  the  higher 
energy  reinforced.  Even  the  loftiest  thought  resulted 
in  certain  waste  products,  that,  if  left  to  accumulate, 
would  soon  clog  and  stifle  it.  This  waste  must  be  car- 
ried off  by  reposeful  exercise  of  the  lower  and  more 
physical  organs.     All  the  lower  elements  which  remain 


Sleep,  Rest,  and  Flight  27 

to  mingle  with  those  of  a  higher  plane  after  they  cease 
to  be  needed  as  regenerators  of  energy  grow  at  once 
poisonous  and  must  be  removed  by  exercise. 

For  many  months  I  occupied  one  of  their  beds,  half 
hammock,  half  framework,  made  of  soft,  flexible  stuff 
that  looked  like  metal,  yet  yielded  like  down.  These 
beds  were  hung  not  only  at  the  four  corners,  but  along 
the  two  sides,  so  that  the  body  lay  in  a  kind  of  groove; 
yet,  by  a  second  series  of  rests,  the  material  was  kept 
from  contact  with  the  sides  of  the  body  or  from  any 
pressure  upon  it.  Within  this  groove  was  laid  an  air- 
cushion  of  still  softer  and  more  elastic  material,  which 
fitted  itself  to  every  irregularity  of  the  body  and  to  its 
various  changes  of  position.  The  pillow  was  of  the 
same  soft  network,  and  so  shaped  as  to  fit  the  head.  I 
afterwards  found  that  through  the  whole  fabric  of  the 
pillow  passed  a  mild  current  of  positive  electricity,  that 
drew  the  energy  from  the  nerve-centres  of  the  head, 
and  soothed  every  tissue  to  rest.  The  framework  of 
the  lower  portion  of  the  bed  was  charged  with  the 
mildest  currents  of  negative  electricity,  and  thus  the 
circulation  and  the  life  were  kept  up,  however  deep 
might  be  the  sleep.  The  sense  of  exhilaration  and  re- 
plenished stores  of  energy  with  which  I  rose  each 
morning  was  enough  to  make  me  enamoured  of  life. 
Day  by  day  I  grew  lighter  in  step,  and  seemed  to  walk 
and  rest  on  air.  It  was  the  grosser  particles  of  my 
system  that  were  being  withdrawn  from  it  by  this 
nightly  process  of  rest.  I  gained  energy  and  lost 
weight  till  I  felt  that  I  could  soon  rise  on  wings.  I 
noticed  before  long  that  I  had  acquired  the  tripping, 
elastic  gait  that  I  had  remarked  in  Noola.  My  move- 
ments and  footfall  came  to  leave  almost  no  impression 
on  my  senses,  and  I  could  have  played  the  ghost  with 


28  Limanora 

appalling  effect  in  the  superstitious  atmospheres  of  my 
native  land.  I  did  not  seem  to  grow  much  smaller  in 
bulk;  yet  in  a  year  or  more  I  must  have  weighed  one 
half  what  I  did  when  I  arrived.  Whether  they  applied 
some  other  degravitating  process  to  my  bones  and 
tissues  besides  the  magnetic  sleep  I  never  ascertained. 
But  they  had  the  power  of  reducing  their  own  weight 
considerably  in  a  few  moments.  It  seemed  as  if  their 
bones  were  hollow  like  those  of  birds;  for  I  could  lift 
even  the  largest  of  them  with  my  one  hand;  and  they 
had  some  reserve  store  of  an  element  lighter  than  air 
in  their  bodies,  which  they  could  increase  and  dis- 
tribute over  their  system  at  will.  When  they  were 
asleep  I  found  I  could  raise  them  as  lightly  as  a  feather, 
but  when  awake  they  could,  whether  by  muscular 
effort  or  by  some  other  process  of  their  bodies,  prevent 
me  lifting  them  even  the  fraction  of  an  inch  from  the 
ground.  They  seemed  able  at  a  thought  to  increase 
their  weight  tenfold,  and  though  they  had  wonderful 
strength  of  muscle,  I  am  certain  that  was  not  all,  for  I 
observed  they  made  little  use  of  it  on  such  occasions. 

It  can  be  easily  imagined  then  how  little  friction 
of  the  body  there  was  during  sleep;  indeed,  they  never 
moved  whilst  resting,  for  there  was  no  need  of  relieving 
the  tension  of  any  part.  I  enjoyed  still  more  another 
kind  of  rest  they  had;  it  was  half  chair,  half  bed,  and 
consisted  of  an  incline  of  the  softest  netting  made  out 
of  their  usual  metal  and  in  such  a  way  that  the  body 
could  not  collapse  when  loosed  in  sleep.  Even  pleas- 
anter  was  the  swing-sleep;  here  a  huge  magnet  kept 
the  supple  incline  gently  swaying  whilst  at  the  same 
time  it  drew  the  blood  from  the  head.  The  float-rest 
was  as  pleasing;  in  this  the  head  rested  on  a  floating 
pillow  whilst  two  air-cushions  stretched  along  one  side 


Sleep,  Rest,  and  Flight  29 

of  the  bod}^  and  supported  it  on  a  network  held  between 
them.  But  the  most  complete  of  all  rests  was  that  in 
which  the  L,imanorans  were  supported  in  the  air  by  a 
cloud  of  sweet-scented  and  wholesome  gas  blown  from 
innumerable  jets  with  steady  power;  electric  fences 
kept  it  from  spreading  into  the  atmosphere  around.  I 
never  reached  that  power  of  reducing  myself  in  weight 
so  that  I  could  enjoy  this  rest.  It  needed  fine  skill 
of  poise  to  climb  to  this  bed  and  remain  there,  and 
I  was  ever  afraid  of  falling. 

The  same  physical  incapacity  prevented  me  from 
reaching  the  most  graceful  and  soothing  of  all  their 
combinations  of  exercise  and  repose.  This  was  the 
wing-rest.  I  had  often  seen  the  albatross,  as  it  followed 
in  the  wake  of  our  yacht,  swoop  down  and  float  up  the 
curves  of  the  wind  without  apparent  effort,  its  broad 
wings  motionless  but  for  occasional  adaptation,  like 
sails,  to  the  changes  in  the  strength  or  direction  of  the 
breeze.  I  had  never  expected  to  see  human  beings 
master  this  bird-power  over  the  air;  but  it  became  the 
commonest  sight  in  the  breezes  of  the  dawn  and  the 
sunset  to  see  old  and  young  of  both  sexes  in  Iyimauora 
fasten  great  wings  to  their  arms  and  feet,  and,  charging 
their  small  wing-engines  with  new  stores  of  energy, 
sail  up  underneath  the  chameleon  clouds,  and  float 
hither  and  thither  like  spirits  of  the  storm.  This  was 
part  of  their  night's  rest  and  their  morning's  exercise; 
and  they  used  to  descend  from  it  with  heightened 
colour  in  their  cheeks  and  the  look  of  profound  repose 
in  their  eyes.  The  long  training  they  had  had  from 
youth  in  the  management  of  their  wings  and  in  gauging 
the  force  and  current  of  the  winds  had  made  their  skill 
and  knowledge  habitual,  if  not  instinctive.  They  could 
shut  their  eyes  and  rest  their  intelligence  as  they  floated 


3°  Limanora 

up  and  down  the  levels  of  the  breeze;  their  wings 
seemed  to  be  at  peace.  I  can  find  no  analogy  in  my 
own  experience  for  their  delight  in  the  swift-curving 
movement  but  my  youthful  enjoyment  of  skating  before 
the  wind  for  miles  over  clear  ice.  It  was  a  gladness 
merely  to  watch  them  sport  amid  the  rays  of  the  grow- 
ing or  lessening  sun.  Often  would  they  time  their 
movements  to  some  rhythm,  and  flash  through  intricate 
evolutions  like  rooks  in  the  evening  air.  Again  half 
of  them  would  fold  their  wings  and  be  borne  by  the 
other  half  with  a  speed  and  lightness  almost  as  great 
as  when  flight  was  unburdened.  All  mere  earthly 
amusements  and  exercise  had  ceased  when  the  secret 
of  flight  had  been  mastered. 

For  generations  their  biologists,  anatomists,  and 
physicists  had  studied  the  wing-power  of  animals  with 
a  view  to  the  practical  mastery  of  it  for  the  Limanoraus 
themselves.  Their  chief  guide  towards  the  analysis 
was  the  study,  not  of  birds  or  insects,  but  of  the  bat. 
They  measured  the  force  of  the  strong  chest  muscles 
that  enabled  it  to  move  its  wings  with  such  rapidity; 
this  could  be  done  to  a  nicety  by  means  of  their  refined 
instruments  for  gauging  latent  power,  whether  in 
tissue  or  nerve  or  muscle.  They  calculated  the  num- 
ber of  beats  it  could  make  in  a  minute.  They  measured 
the  spread  of  the  wings  and  the  weight  of  the  body. 
Thus  they  came  to  an  almost  constant  equation  of 
wing-power  to  size  and  weight.  The  physicist  and 
mechanic  were  then  called  in;  but  they  would  have 
been  helpless  without  the  new  metal,  irelium,  and  their 
power  of  concentrating  great  power  into  small  space. 
This  metal  was  extracted  by  a  process  from  common 
earth,  but  could  also  be  found  pure  some  miles  down 
in  the  earth.     It  was  perhaps  the  first  essential  to  the 


Sleep,  Rest,  and  Flight  31 

rapid  advance  of  their  civilisation  because  of  its  extreme 
lightness  and  strength,  and  still  more  its  wonderful 
flexibility  and  elasticity  when  mixed  with  certain  pro- 
portions of  other  substances.  It  could  be  made  into 
the  most  delicate  membrane,  fine  as  gauze  and  yet 
tough  and  resistent  as  leather.  It  formed  the  material 
of  their  most  massive  engineering  works,  and  of  their 
lightest  draperies  and  garments.  Nothing  could  sur- 
pass its  adaptability  to  all  purposes  of  civilisation. 

It  was  out  of  this  that  they  were  able  to  make  their 
wings  which  seemed  so  fragile  and  yet  could  bear  the 
force  of  the  wildest  storms.  It  would  stand  stiffly  on 
its  framework  against  the  strongest  pressure,  and  yet 
could  be  expanded  balloon-wise  from  within.  The 
only  means  of  disabling  these  wings  was  perforation  by 
a  hard,  sharp  point.  This  could  never  occur  in  the  air 
except  from  the  beak  of  a  bird;  and  then  they  could 
still  use  their  spread  as  a  parachute  to  break  their  de- 
scent. Another  quality  this  metal  had  was  its  trans- 
parency, and  their  flight  was  somewhat  concealed  from 
the  sight  of  gazers  below  by  the  colour  they  took  from 
their  atmospheric  surroundings;  it  was  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish them  from  a  floating  cloud  or  a  darker  patch 
of  grey  or  blue  sky.  The  wings  could  be  easily  folded 
or  expanded,  so  flexible  was  the  material;  and,  when 
the  Limanorans  landed  from  their  flight,  scarcely  a 
minute  elapsed  before  the  huge  sails,  framework  and 
all,,  had  been  furled  and  had  disappeared  in  the  ordinary 
outline  of  their  bodies. 

And  these  bodies  differed  as  much  as  their  natures 
from  those  I  had  been  accustomed  to  see.  They  were 
short  and  squat;  and  this,  with  their  broad  chests,  great 
heads,  and  long  arms,  would  have  led  Europeans  to 
call  the  Limanoraus  gnomes.     Muscles  and  bones  that 


32  Limanora 

in  other  men  had  been  of  little  importance  had  grown 
into  what  we  should  have  called  abnormal  size  and 
strength.  But  after  I  had  met  the  power  of  their  eyes 
and  felt  the  beauty  of  the  natures  that  shone  in  their 
faces,  their  bodies  seemed  to  me  the  normal  garment 
of  the  highest  human  spirits  ;  and  I  came  to  under- 
stand the  high  purpose  of  every  change  they  had 
brought  about  in  their  forms  and  features.  Without 
their  broad  chests  they  could  never  have  had  such  ex- 
pansible lungs  or  such  powerful  heart-action  essential 
to  easy  flight,  as  well  as  to  the  lightning  sweep  of  their 
thoughts  and  energies  and  the  rapid  advance  of  their 
civilisation.  The  pulse  could  be  seen  in  many  parts 
of  the  body,  it  was  so  strong;  and  its  beats  were  twice 
as  frequent  as  in  my  own.  The  great  heat  of  summer 
was  to  them  little  inconvenience;  they  could  thrust 
their  arms  into  what  seemed  to  be  boiling  water  with- 
out shrinking;  and  they  could  bear  a  degree  of  cold  far 
below  the  lowest  temperature  I  had  ever  felt,  for  the 
high  temperature  of  their  bodies  made  them  capable  of 
enduring  far  greater  extremes  of  climate  than  any  race 
I  had  ever  known  or  heard  of.  But  their  breathing 
was  much  less  frequent  than  mine;  they  seemed  to 
take  in  enormous  draughts  of  air  at  each  inspiration 
and  to  retain  stores  of  it  in  their  system.  They  con- 
tinued at  their  ease  in  difficult  atmospheres  and  exer- 
tions long  after  I  had  begun  to  pant  and  gasp  for 
breath.  The  spaces  within  their  bodies  that  had  once 
been  wholly  filled  with  the  organs  of  digestion  and  dis- 
charge had  evidently  been  largely  utilised  for  their 
marvellous  expansion  of  lungs  and  heart. 

Another  purpose  that  their  huge  chests  served  was 
to  bear  the  strain  of  the  great  muscles  that  controlled 
their  arms,  and  of  the  powerful  engines  that,  strapped 


Sleep,  Rest,  and  Flight  33 

011  to  them,  gave  the  strong  and  swift  beat  to  their 
wings.     Their  arms  were  moulded  on  lines  of  similar 
strength ;  for  they  had  to  bear  the  strain  of  the  forward 
stroke  of  the  wing,  whilst  also  having  to  manipulate  by 
means  of  the  long  and  sinewy  fingers  its  great  folds  in 
the  backward   sweep;    and,  when   more  expanse  was 
needed  during  calmer  weather  or  when  resting  in  the 
sky,  the  arms  had  to  thrust  out  and  to  bear  long  rods  that 
in  their  turn  bore  expansions  of  the  wings  like  the  stud- 
ding-sails of  a  ship.     The  thumb  of  each  hand  was  kept 
free  for  the  management  of  their  breast  and  shoulder- 
engines;  and  it  had  become  by  exercise  more  vigorous 
and  more  flexible  than  the  ordinary  human  thumb.     In 
each  armpit  was  carried  a  small  engine  that  could  be 
used  either  as  subsidiary  to  the  great  breast-engine  or 
for  the  partial  or  complete  furling  of  the  wings.     Beside 
it  was  a  storage-battery,  in  which  could  be  generated  by 
the  movements  of  the  arm  more  electricity  to  supply  the 
central  power,  thus  enabling  them  to  extend  their  flight 
through  long  periods.     If  they  became  tired  they  could 
expand  and  inflate  their  wings  with  a  gas  made  much 
warmer  by  the  heat  of  their  bodies  than  the  surround- 
ing atmosphere  ;    then  throwing  themselves  on  their 
backs  they  could  rest  or  rise  in  the  air  as  on  a  balloon. 
^    In  slow  or  ordinary  flight,  or  when  the  wind  was  not 
high,  they  could  steer  themselves  rudely  by  manipu- 
lating the  outer  folds  of  their  wings  with  their  fingers. 
But  if  they  wished  to   fly  swiftly,   or   in  some  other 
direction  than  the  wind  would  bear  them,  they  could 
push  out  a  tail-like  membrane  of  irelium  from  between 
the  feet.and  move  it  hither  and  thither  by  the  sinewy 
power  of  the  heels.     The  great  toe  of  each  foot  was 
also  much  developed  by  long  use  for  stretching  out  and 
managing  the  wings;  it  had  become  more  like  a  thumb, 


34  Limanora 

capable  of  seizing  and  manipulating  cords  or  mem- 
branes. It  was  this,  added  to  the  lightness  of  their 
bodies,  that  gave  them  their  springy  gait,  and  made 
them  seem  when  they  walked  as  if  they  scarcely  touched 
the  ground;  they  could  skim  like  a  bird  close  to  the 
earth  by  using  only  the  outer  folds  of  their  wings  and 
the  tip  of  the  great  toe  for  propulsion. 

Much  though  my  weight  was  reduced,  and  ardent 
though  I  was  in  1113'  attempts  to  come  up  with  their 
mastery  over  the  air,  I  was  seldom  able  to  do  more 
than  quicken  my  pace  in  running  and  rise  in  short, 
clumsy,  laboured  flights  on  their  wings  like  a  callow 
nestling  fallen  from  its  nest.  I  was  soon  exhausted  by 
my  efforts,  even  when  aided  by  my  ultimately  deft 
management  of  the  breast-engine  and  the  shoulder- 
engines;  for  my  lungs  were  short  of  compass,  my 
heart  soon  beat  too  rapidly  for  the  strength  of  its  tis- 
sue, and  my  arms  and  fingers  and  great  toe  soon  grew 
wear}'  of  the  work  they  had  to  do.  Nothing  but  the 
selection  and  adaptation  of  my  ancestry  could  have 
made  me  capable  of  progressing  physically  to  their 
level.  Their  past  had  been  a  rapid  and  deliberate 
process  of  adjustment  to  new  and  higher  ideas  of  life, 
one  of  the  main  aims  being  this  new  mode  of  locomo- 
tion in  order  to  give  them  command  of  a  sphere  that 
other  men  had  abandoned  to  the  birds  and  insects; 
for  it  was  but  one  of  the  corollaries  of  the  great  pur- 
pose of  their  existence,  which  was  to  master  or  eject 
the  grosser  elements  of  their  system,  that  they  might 
rise  into  a  more  ethereal  or  spiritual  life.  By  the 
power  of  flight  they  seemed  to  gain  independence  of  the 
earth,  greater  freedom  of  movement,  and  an  approach 
to  that  frictionless,  untrammelled  motion  through 
limitless  space  which  thought  gives  a  foretaste  of. 


■-^JSe* 


Wi 


CHAPTER   IV 


HERMITRY 

FLIGHT  was  one  of  their  best  methods  too  of 
achieving  complete  solitude.  One  of  the  early 
discoveries  of  this  people  in  the  art  of  progress  was 
that,  where  men  are  too  much  or  too  long  together, 
they  confirm  each  other's  faults  and  clog  advance;  the 
weaker  and  more  superficial  ambitions  get  the  mastery 
and  force  energy  into  mistaken  directions.  The  risk 
of  this  grew  less  as  the  individual  grew  older;  for  he 
receded  farther  and  farther  from  the  ancestral  stages 
of  life  through  which  he  must  pass  in  youth  and  early 
manhood ;  and  he  came  to  have  less  desire  and  less 
need  for  intercourse  with  his  fellows.  Complete  love 
of  solitude  and  capacity  for  solitude  were  two  of  the 
signs  of  the  perfecting  of  the  individual  life;  thereafter 
death,  the  rending  of  the  veil  that  divides  the  seen 
from  the  unseen,  was  the  most  natural  step  in  develop- 
ment, and  scarcely  needed  effort.  The}'  held  solitude 
as  much  one  of  the  essentials  of  noble  life  as  society; 
and  the  latter  needed  no  stimulus;  by  nature  and  be- 
ginnings man  was  a  social  animal,  but  only  some  strong 
impulse  would  make  him  seek  the  companionship  of  his 
own  thoughts.  The  final  triumph  of  life  was  to  be  able 
to  be  confidently  alone,  to  stand  with  the  highest  man 

35 


36  Limanora 

can  think  and  feel  against  the  herded  universe.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  the  more  physical  and  primary  passions 
it  is  the  universal  instinct  to  flock  together.  The  baser, 
the  more  destructive  feelings  are  gregarious. 

To  ensure  periods  of  solitude  for  each  member  of  the 
community,  every  man  and  every  woman  had  a  separate 
house,  as  soon  as  the  powers  were  mature.  One  of  the 
horrors  of  the  past  out  of  which  they  had  come  was  the 
intrusion  of  friends  and  relatives  every  hour  of  the  day, 
and  the  irritating  sense  of  the  continually  watchful  eyes 
of  servants  or  slaves.  Only  by  seeking  the  wilds  could 
one  find  real  solitude.  In  all  human  communities 
there  are  endless  opportunities  for  social  intercourse; 
opportunities  for  solitude  are  artificial.  Life  was  ar- 
ranged in  L,imanora  with  a  view  to  allowing  and  secur- 
ing as  frequent  and  as  long  solitudes  as  were  consonant 
with  the  progress  of  the  race.  On  the  most  prominent 
point  of  every  house  there  was  the  representation  of 
two  climbing  flowers:  and  if  these  hung  drooping, 
colourless,  and  apart,  everyone  knew  that  the  occupant 
desired  seclusion;  if  they  flushed  with  rose,  stood  up  to 
the  sun,  and  twined  round  each  other,  then  wTas  it 
known  that  human  converse  was  permissible,  if  not 
desired. 

There  was  indeed  sufficient  magnetic  communion  of 
spirit  among  all  the  people  to  touch  into  life  at  inter- 
vals the  love  of  that  definite  and  open  intercourse  so 
native  to  the  human  system.  This  inborn  social  faculty 
might  be  trusted  to  prevent  the  love  of  loneliness  from 
severing  all  ties.  There  were  daily  public  duties  that 
brought  everyone  into  the  knowledge  and  sight  of  his 
fellow-men,  the  rota  of  physical  exercise  at  the  centre  of 
force,  the  flight-drill,  the  general  meeting  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  medical  review.     And  every  day  and 


Hermitry  37 

almost  everj*  hour  of  the  day  communion  of  spirit  could 
go  on  in  the  magnificent  baths,  in  the  halls  of  recupera- 
tion, and  in  the  valley  of  memories.  There  was  no 
lack  of  occasion  to  draw  the  Limanorans  together. 

But  the  other  duty  to  the  higher  self  was  sacredly 
guarded  and  fostered,  especially  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
life.  One  of  the  greatest  blunders  they  had  to  correct 
in  their  former  civilisation  had  been  gregarious  educa- 
tion. Large  families  had  been  one  of  the  consequences 
of  a  half-developed  humanity,  more  kin  to  the  animal 
world  than  to  the  spiritual.  The  lower  a  living  thing 
is  in  the  scale  of  life  the  more  prolific  it  is,  the  more 
devoted  to  the  mere  function  of  keeping  its  species 
alive.  Unicellular  organisms  perpetuate  their  exist- 
ence by  continual  fission.  Microbes  become  massive 
in  their  effects  b)T  the  countless  myriads  each  is  capable 
of  producing.  The  higher  the  organisation,  the  less 
is  the  energy  that  can  be  spared  for  generation,  and 
the  more  capable  is  the  offspring  when  matured  of  en- 
suring its  own  survival,  of  rising  above  and  managing 
the  laws  of  nature.  Civilisation  has  not  advanced  far 
when  it  acts  by  masses  and  needs  masses  to  keep  it 
going.  Then  mere  subsistence  and  procreation  are 
the  only  purposes  and  functions  of  most  life.  To  feed, 
to  reproduce,  to  die,  that  is  their  history. 

The  Limanorans  looked  back  to  that  stage  of  their 
development  with  a  shudder,  so  far  in  the  mists  and 
darkness  of  animalism  did  it  seem.  Now  one  man  of 
them  was  more  able  to  do  battle  with  nature  and  her 
fecundity  and  her  catastrophes  than  a  hundred  thou- 
sand of  that  olden  time,  and  not  one  hundred-thou- 
sandth of  the  generative  power  was  needed.  Then  but 
a  poor  fraction  of  the  life-energy  could  be  given  up  to 
education.     The  offspring  had  to  be  trained  in  masses 


38  Limanora 

or  have  no  training  at  all.  The  parents  were  too 
busy  earning  the  means  of  life  to  mould  their  fami- 
lies, and  had  too  man3T  children  to  give  heed  to  the 
character  of  the  individual.  All  the  offspring  were 
handed  over  to  professional  trainers,  who  managed 
them  in  the  mass,  and  who  had  to  work  by  the  methods 
of  nature  with  its  myriad  children  through  the  law  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest.  They  had  to  be  handled 
like  armies,  and  the  stricter  the  discipline,  the  better 
the  result  was  supposed  to  be;  and  where  the  people 
were  counted  in  masses  and  moved  in  masses  the  bet- 
ter it  undoubtedly  was  for  the  survival  of  the  state. 
Schools  and  universities  were  a  necessity  of  that  far- 
back  stage  of  civilisation;  the}-  were  the  drill-sergeants 
of  civil  life,  dragooning  the  j'oung  and  their  ideas  into 
accordance  with  the  prevailing  and  accepted  type. 
Too  much  independence  of  character  or  thought  or 
manner  would  have  broken  the  ranks  and  endangered 
the  existence  of  the  commonweal.  But  the  chief  pur- 
pose of  life  on  the  world,  the  progress  of  the  species, 
was  ignored  in  this  devotion  to  mere  persistence  of  the 
species.  All  variant  germs  and  elements  that  nature 
supplies  in  every  individual  it  brings  forth  were 
smoothed  down  or  annihilated  into  uniformity.  The 
type  persisted  from  century  to  century  unchanged. 
Only  by  stealth  or  by  audacit)'  did  any  new  or  alien 
element  succeed  in  modifying  the  species;  and  when 
it  did  succeed  the  modification  was  as  often  retrograde 
as  progressive.  Therefore,  in  order  to  be  secure  from 
variation,  public  opinion  punished  all  habits  that  would 
lead  to  independence  of  character  or  thought  or  feeling. 
As  soon  as  the  great  exilings  had  been  completed, 
the  Iyimanorans  recognised  that  the  best  chance  of  swift 
progress  was  the  selection  and  preservation  of  the  finest 


Hermitry  39 

variants  in  their  character  and  thoughts.  They  there- 
fore abolished  the  profession  of  teacher,  that  manufac- 
turer of  uniformity,  and  all  schools  and  universities, 
hot-beds  of  convention,  worship  of  antiquity,  and 
retrogression.  They  by  no  means  abolished  education ; 
they  recreated  it,  intensified  it,  and  made  it  the  chief 
function  of  the  community.  The  whole  time  and  ener- 
gies of  the  parents,  or,  as  the  case  might  be,  of  the 
proparents,  were  given  up  for  a  period  of  from  fifty 
to  seventy  years  to  the  training  and  moulding  of  each 
child.  Nothing  was  left  to  nature  or  haphazard.  And 
every  new  tendency  or  faculty  that  was  discovered  in 
the  pupil  was  recorded  and  reported  to  the  council  of 
sages.  It  was  discussed  by  them,  and,  if  judged  to  be 
hostile  to  the  progress  of  the  race,  the  parents  were  as- 
sisted in  eradicating  it;  if  manifestly  progressive,  every 
means  was  taken  to  make  it  grow;  if  doubtful  in  its 
results,  it  was  submitted  to  the  community,  and  their 
instincts  soon  brought  them  to  a  decision.  Thus  it 
was  that  their  world  was  being  continually  renovated. 
Never  was  an  idea  or  method  of  action  rejected  simply 
because  it  was  new.  Every  opportunity  of  advance 
was  seized  and  tested.  Every  suggestion  of  a  new 
direction  of  progress  was  investigated  and  followed 
out  till  it  was  seen  to  be  impracticable. 

And,  to  prevent  emphasising  the  old  and  outworn  or 
reviving  the  past,  the  young  were  isolated  from  one 
another;  for,  as  the  embryo  records  in  its  growth  the 
stages  of  animalism  through  which  terrestrial  life  passed 
upwards  from  the  unicellular  to  the  complex  human 
organisation,  so  the  immature  periods  that  come  be- 
tween infancy  and  full  manhood  record  human  develop- 
ment, prehistoric  as  well  as  historic.  The  long  ages  of 
primitive  futility  in  presence  of  the  powers  of  nature 


4o  Limanora 

are  abbreviated  into  the  helpless  years  of  infancy. 
Prehistoric  savagery  shows  itself  in  various  traces  in 
the  rebellious,  adventure-loving,  omnivorous  phase  of 
boyhood.  The  first  stages  of  civilisation  appear  in  the 
early  years  of  puberty;  its  later  stages  in  the  approach 
to  full  manhood.  The  imperfect  past  ever  springs  up 
like  weeds  amid  the  growth  of  the  new  life,  and  will 
choke  it  if  encouraged.  And  nothing,  they  held,  gave 
such  persistence  to  the  evils  and  imperfections  of  the 
past,  thus  appearing  in  early  life,  as  the  gregariousness 
of  youth.  Nothing  had  done  so  great  a  wrong  to  the 
race,  or  had  so  hindered  its  progress,  as  their  former 
education  system  with  its  schools  and  universities.  To 
throw  men  in  the  immature  stages  of  their  life  into 
close  intercourse  was  to  confirm  their  immaturities,  to 
encourage  atavism,  to  make  the  past  tyrannise  over 
the  future.  As  long  as  their  old  system  continued, 
their  civilisation  was  enslaved  to  the  times  that  were 
gone,  and  imagination  deified  the  world  as  it  had  been. 
Next  to  their  exiling  policy,  their  educational  reform 
was  one  of  the  most  important  starting-points  of  their 
new  and  swiftly  progressive  civilisation.  I  was  aston- 
ished at  the  length  and  frequency  of  my  isolations 
during  the  period  of  my  training.  For  years  I  saw  few 
or  none  but  the  two  proparents  to  whose  care  I  had 
been  handed  over,  even  after  I  had  been  introduced  to 
other  sections  of  the  community.  In  the  process  of  my 
advance  towards  L,imanoran  habits  and  powers,  I  was 
often  left  for  days  together  to  my  own  thoughts,  and 
yet  in  the  presence  of  some  supervising  power  that 
seldom  made  itself  definite  to  any  of  my  senses  or  even 
to  my  mind.  Throughout  these  intervals  of  solitude, 
I  felt  continual  suggestion  of  noble  thought  and  emotion 
come  to  me  from  my  surroundings,  the  divine  music 


Hermitry  41 

that  rang"  so  softly  and  variedly  amid  the  silences,  the 
deep  meaning  of  the  arts  that  filled  every  corner  of  my 
life,  the  magnetic  energy  that  rayed  forth  from  un- 
known centres  upon  my  spirit.  The  finest  impulses  of 
my  nature  became  dominant  in  me  at  these  times  and 
grew  in  strength.  I  came  to  recognise  the  power  that 
such  solitude  gave  to  character.  Without  it  I  should 
have  inclined  to  become  the  echo  of  my  tutors,  even 
though  they  were  ever  impressing  upon  me  the  neces- 
sity of  thinking  and  acting  for  myself.  They  were  so 
noble,  so  far  above  the  men  and  women  I  had  met  or 
heard  of  or  read  of  that  it  was  a  hard  task  not  to  fall 
down  and  worship  them. 

Once  I  had  the  misfortune  to  question  the  benefits 
of  prolonged  seclusion.  I  urged  the  praises  of  friend- 
ship so  common  in  the  literature  of  my  country,  and 
spoke  with  great  fervour  of  the  pleasures  of  social  inter- 
course, the  keen  emulation  on  the  path  of  development 
it  stirred,  and  the  wide  influence  which  the  finest  char- 
acters had.  I  painted  in  glowing  colours  all  that  re- 
fined society  might  become, — the  witty  Parisian  salons 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  artistic  circles  in  the 
fifteenth-century  Italian  republics,  the  brilliant  associa- 
tion of  thoughtful  men  in  some  of  the  London  literary 
sets  of  the  nineteenth  century.  What  could  be  nobler 
than  such  intellectual  brilliancy  of  intercourse  as  is  re- 
corded in  the  biographies  of  the  great  men  and  beautiful 
and  refined  women  of  the  West!  Then  I  turned  to  the 
happiness  of  children  and  youth  together  in  the  gardens 
or  woods  or  on  the  shores  of  the  ocean,  and  their  sad- 
ness when  they  moped  alone  in  their  rooms  or  at  their 
books.  Companionship  was  the  very  life  of  childhood 
and  youth.  Did  not  solitary  musings  even  in  maturity 
produce  morbid  self-introspection  ?     The  intercourse, 


42  Limanora 

even  with  superiors  and  elders,  was  somewhat  unwhole- 
some for  the  young  spirit, — it  crushed  spontaneity  and 
naturalness  and  confidence  in  one's  inner  self. 

I  worked  myself  up  to  a  climax  of  eloquence,  and 
thought  that  I  had  demolished  all  possibility  of  defence 
of  their  system.  But  I  had  succeeded  only  by  ignoring 
the  vices  and  weaknesses  of  society.  These  wise  men 
quietly  and  almost  unconcernedly  took  me  behind  the 
gaudy  theatrical  curtain  of  the  world,  and  smiled  to 
think  how  like  their  old  social  ideals  had  been  to  those 
I  had  described,  and  to  see  the  same  vanity  and  postur- 
ing in  European  refinement  as  in  their  own  evil  past. 
They  mourned  over  my  blindness  of  mind  in  failing  to 
look  through  the  gorgeous  transparency  at  the  tawdry 
vulgarities  behind.  Following  it  through  many  forms 
and  stages  of  life,  animal  and  human,  they  showed  me 
the  law  of  social  intercourse;  not  the  highest  but  the 
lowest  emotional  and  moral  level  of  a  herd  or  circle  do 
the  natures  and  minds  of  its  members  ultimately  reach, 
however  lofty  the  aspirations  of  some  of  them  may  be. 
A  company  in  which  free  utterance  is  the  rule  is  soon 
mastered  by  base  interpretation  of  the  noblest  lives, 
and  it  is  to  guard  against  the  effects  of  this  hydrostatic 
law  of  ethics  that  churches  and  temples  have  been 
erected.  There  the  awe  of  a  higher  power  and  the 
conventions  of  worship  conceal  the  inevitability  of  the 
law,  and  save  the  shyer  natures  for  brief  periods  from 
the  evil  influence  of  the  bold.  The  most  masterful  re- 
ligions have  always  provided  permanent  refuges  for 
the  finer  spirits  who  dread  conflict  with  the  unscru- 
pulous wit  or  power  of  the  world,  and  who  know  how 
in  a  struggle  of  speech  or  action  or  even  pure  thought 
the  wielder  of  the  fouler  weapons  wins.  It  has  been 
the  rule  throughout  civilised  history  that  the  greatest 


Hermitry  43 

characters,  if  they  cling  to  moral  principle,  at  last 
withdraw  into  solitude  partial  or  complete,  and  become 
the  sages  of  the  world;  if  they  remain  in  action  and 
succeed,  the  necessity  for  further  success  drives  them 
to  accept  the  moral  level  of  the  lowest  they  have  to 
struggle  with;  for  if  immoral  men  of  less  intellectual 
power  overcome  them,  defeat  means  to  them  ultimate 
exhaustion  of  the  soul;  nothing  bleaches  the  faculties 
and  reduces  them  to  the  common  level  like  failure  after 
failure.  However  great  a  hero  may  be  to  begin  with, 
success  in  action  closes  his  moral  career,  whilst  failure 
closes  his  intellectual.  To  die  in  his  first  great  victory 
is  the  truest  happiness  that  can  befall  him. 

In  fact  the  Limanorans  came  ages  before  to  see  that 
all  public  life  with  its  competitions  and  ambitions, 
social,  artistic,  political,  military,  meant  the  triumph 
of  cunning  or  force;  it  meant  the  retrogression  to  the 
nakedest  savagery  hidden  underneath  the  gewgaws  of 
civilisation.  No  real  advance  could  be  made  by  any 
form  of  humanity  so  long  as  its  ablest  spirits  were 
drawn  into  the  furious  struggle  for  glory,  in  which  the 
cruellest  and  most  audacious  cunning  was  bound  to 
win.  The  founders  of  new  religions  and  new  philoso- 
phies have  been  strong  spirits  who  saw  the  foul  im- 
broglio before  them  in  public  life  and  shrank  back  from 
it.  The  first  aim  of  the  Limanorans,  when  once  the)' 
had  rid  themselves  of  their  more  degenerate  brethren, 
was  to  abolish  this  contest  of  might  and  cunning,  and 
turn  their  stronger  spirits  to  the  true  progress  of  them- 
selves and  their  race.  And  little  difficult}-  was  ex- 
perienced in  accomplishing  this  most  fundamental 
reform;  the  island  had  been  purged  of  the  furiously 
ambitious,  of  all  who  longed  for  the  naked  palaestra  of 
civilised  savagery.     They  knew  better  than  most  men 


44  Limanora 

how  much  of  the  essence  of  life  was  competition,  how 
necessary  to  all  progress  was  the  struggle  for  existence, 
how  fundamental  was  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  But  they  realised' vividly  that  nature  unguided 
often  chose  false  directions,  that  the  struggle  may  be  in 
a  myriad  various  arenas  that  differ  greatly  from  one 
another  in  nobleness  or  baseness,  that  the  law  if  left  to 
itself  might  lead  to  the  survival  of  the  fiercest  or  cun- 
ningest  or  basest  according  to  the  conditions  that  were 
to  be  fitted.  The  will  of  man  could  work  on  the  con- 
ditions, so  elevating  the  struggle  and  leading  the  law 
to  a  nobler  issue.  They  did  not,  they  could  not,  put 
an  end  to  the  struggle.  What  they  did  was  to  with- 
draw it  from  false  grounds  and  false  aims,  and  guard 
it  from  any  appearance  of  the  lower  nature,  sensuality, 
cunning,  or  force.  The  competitive  energy  in  every 
Limanoran's  nature  was  bent  towards  his  own  future 
and  the  future  of  his  race,  and  strove  to  surpass  the 
past,  if  it  were  great  and  noble,  and  to  cast  it  out,  if  it 
were  base  and  threatened  to  reappear.  To  strive  up- 
wards, to  help  the  whole  people  to  progress,  these  were 
the  aims  that  transformed  the  everlasting  struggle  and 
the  ever-working  law. 

This  revolution  in  existence  accomplished,  and  pub- 
lic life  having  in  consequence  vanished,  there  ceased 
all  need  of  social  display,  of  conversational  fireworks, 
and  of  tact  in  managing  men  either  singly  or  in  masses. 
The  object  of  gregarious  education  disappeared  at  once. 
As  long  as  the  coarse  and  selfish  struggle  called  public 
life  was  the  highest  sphere,  they  knew  the  youth  had 
to  be  trained  for  it,  its  methods  and  aims  had  to  be 
adopted,  and  schools  and  universities  were  a  necessity, 
as  miniature  reflections  of  the  greater  world.  In  order 
to  succeed  in  life  they  had  to  be  rolled  together  and 


Hermitry  45 

tumbled  against  one  another  like  pebbles  in  a  stream 
till  they  had  taken  the  conventional  smoothness  of 
outline  and  similarity  of  sheen;  they  had  to  learn  to 
keep  the  wild  beast  in  their  hearts  and  the  silken  cour- 
tier in  their  manners,  to  cloak  untruth  and  hypocrisy 
in  an  appearance  of  brilliancy  or  wisdom,  to  make 
grasping  selfishness  seem  almost  divine  love,  and  brutal 
cruelty  and  arrogance  the  most  dazzling  refinement. 
It  was  painful  to  read  the  flashy  lies  and  stabs  in  the 
dark  that  went  for  wit,  and  the  cruel  intrigue  and 
showy  falsehood  that  went  to  the  making  of  history, 
in  those  old  times.  Even  the  friendship  of  the  foremost 
was  but  a  piece  of  acting;  little  trust  could  be  put  in 
it;  it  served  its  purpose  and  was  abandoned  as  soon  as 
it  failed  to  impress  the  dupes.  And  solitaries  then 
seemed  useless,  moping  self-analysers;  they  made  no 
history  and  they  were  soon  forgotten.  No  parents 
could  afford  to  let  any  one  of  their  children  thus  lose 
his  life;  and,  however  gentle  and  meditative  he  might 
be  by  nature,  he  must  be  thrust  into  the  cruel  struggle 
of  school  and  university  in  order  to  acquire  hardness 
and  brilliancy;  however  virtuous  and  noble  in  purpose, 
he  had  to  prepare  for  the  arena  of  polished  scoundrelism. 
As  soon  as  these  conditions  of  competition  ceased, 
education  in  masses  had  to  cease  too;  it  must  be  a 
miniature  of  the  general  life  and  a  preparation  for  it. 
At  a  distance  and  in  a  haze  it  seems  as  if  the  immature 
in  their  sports  were  leading  a  life  of  primitive  and 
happy  innocence;  but  innocence  often  accompanies  un- 
tamed passion  and  fierce  emulation.  The  appearance 
of  simplicity  comes  from  their  ignorance  of  the  advance 
of  the  world.  Nothing  did  the  Limanorans  so  shudder 
at  as  the  chance  of  perpetuating  the  methods  and  habits 
of  this  early  and  undeveloped  stage  throughout  later 


46  Limanora 

life.  What  their  associative  education  in  former  times 
had  done  for  them  was  to  confirm  the  vices  of  savagery 
under  the  gloved  conventions  that  civilised  life  de- 
manded, and  to  destroy  the  simplicity  for  ever.  Soli- 
tary training  under  the  supervision  of  sages,  they  soon 
found,  had  the  reverse  effect;  it  confirmed  the  natural- 
ness and  spontaneity,  and  swept  out  the  inclination  to 
intrigue  and  arrogance  and  cruelty. 

There  was  a  childlikeuess  in  their  natures  that  gave 
great  beauty  to  their  faces;  and  this  they  retained 
through  the  longest  life  and  the  most  absorbing  work. 
If  there  was  one  quality  more  than  others  which 
marked  them  as  a  race,  it  was  their  gentle  and  trustful 
outlook  upon  life,  their  naive  candour  and  transparency 
of  character,  their  simple  wonder  and  delight  over  any 
new  discovery  or  invention.  They  never  grudged  the 
quiet  admiration  any  word  or  action  deserved.  They 
never  assumed  that  tone  of  superiority  or  sophistica- 
tion, which,  coming  as  it  does  from  envy,  jealousy,  or 
malice,  mars  all  praise  or  blame.  They  were  children 
to  one  another  in  the  limpidity  of  their  life.  And  so 
their  features,  which  had  not  often  the  attractions  of 
regularity,  had  come  to  be  transfigured  by  this  single- 
heartedness;  however  old  and  experienced  and  wise 
they  might  be,  all  possessed  this  divine  beauty  of  child- 
hood. Sailors  and  backwoodsmen,  men  who  have  to 
spend  long  periods  of  their  lives  in  comparative  soli- 
tude, away  from  the  sophistications  of  crowded  life, 
often  reveal  traces  of  this  childlike  beauty  of  nature 
and  expression.  And  it  was  this  peculiar  educational 
system  and  its  long  intervals  of  solitary  meditation 
that  kept  the  L,imanorans  children,  simple  and  ingenu- 
ous, till  the  day  each  vanished  in  the  ether. 

What  deprived  these  isolations  of  bitterness  was  that 


Hermitry  47 

one  never  felt  lonely  nor  abandoned  by  his  fellows  dur- 
ing them.  In  a  moment,  there  could  be  communica- 
tion in  thought  or  magnetic  sympathy  with  his  dearest 
friends,  and  within  a  brief  space  they  would  be  at  his 
side.  The3*  often  resisted  the  associative  impulse, 
through  fear  that  it  might  be  but  the  return  of  the  old 
immaturity  in  disguise;  and  they  knew  that  friend- 
ship was  ever  at  call,  and  that  all  true  solitudes  deep- 
ened the  current  of  life. 

As  I  came  to  feel  the  spirit  of  their  existence,  these 
arguments  grew  self-evident;  I  saw  how  all-important 
to  progress  were  these  intervals  of  isolation.  The3r  had 
studied  with  the  minutest  care  and  ultimate  shuddering 
the  features  of  their  old  civilisation,  and  they  bad 
found  that  the  worst  of  them  came  from  the  associative 
principle  in  the  training  of  youth.  Atavism  became 
their  greatest  horror;  in  the  breast  of  every  child  born 
into  civilised  life  an  embr}7o  savage  is  born,  and  this 
had  been  vitalised  and  fostered  by  sympathy  with  what 
was  savage  in  companions  and  schoolmates.  Under 
their  old  school  and  university  systems  the  age  of  train- 
ing was  that  which  corresponded  to  the  military  stage  in 
the  development  of  man;  and  boys  were  for  ever  fight- 
ing, girls  ever  encouraging  to  fight;  emulation  became 
fierce  rivalry  and  hatred.  A  crude  stage  of  the  past 
was  confirmed  and  perpetuated  through  life  b)-  con- 
stant association  in  the  time  of  life  that  stood  for  it. 
That  was  why  their  leisured  classes  had  so  devoted 
themselves  during  peace  to  the  wilder  sports  of  the 
hunting  stage  of  mankind,  whilst  they  were  ever  itch- 
ing for  war  that  their  sons  might  distinguish  themselves. 
That  was  why  they  had  indulged  so  often  in  breaches 
of  the  marriage  bond,  and  outraged  the  monogamy  that 
they  professed  to  revere;  the  minds  of  the  youth  had 


48  Limanora 

been  inflamed  by  the  free  proximity  of  the  sexes  before 
the  passions  had  been  mastered,  before  the  polygamous 
and  unmoral  stage  of  their  career  had  been  passed 
through.  And  education,  instead  of  checking  the 
perpetuation  of  these  immaturities,  encouraged  it. 
Teachers  had  come  to  pride  themselves  in  the  develop- 
ment of  these  savage  stages  of  boyhood  and  girlhood, 
and  called  the  weaknesses  by  euphemistic  names,  pluck, 
pride,  grace.  The  young  men  and  women  were  taught 
to  glory  in. them.  And  thus  evil  became  eternal.  In 
more  primitive  life,  there  had  been  of  necessity  a  wiser 
method  of  training.  There  were  no  large  centres  of 
population  where  their  youth  was  massed  in  schools 
and  universities.  Families  wandered  or  rested  by 
themselves;  and  the  hardships  of  existence  ensured 
the  survival  of  the  few  that  were  fittest.  These  few 
had  from  their  earliest  years  to  join  their  elders  in 
their  pursuits,  and  they  learned  in  such  society  to  pass 
rapidly  through  the  primitive  stages  of  man's  develop- 
ment, emulating  the  skill  of  their  betters  and  following 
them  with  modesty  and  reverence.  In  the  later  in- 
dustrial and  centralistic  ages  the  youth  had  to  be 
massed  educationally,  and  by  the  mutual  encourage- 
ment of  sympathy  came  to  glory  in  their  immaturities 
as  perfections,  and  desired  to  prolong  the  savage  stage 
of  their  life  into  later  years.  They  judged  their  elders 
by  false  and  atavistic  standards  and  so  lost  their 
modesty  and  reverence.  It  was  only  an  occasional 
wave  of  lofty  feeling  issuing  from  some  inspired  poet 
or  prophet  that  raised  one  generation  above  the  preced- 
ing. For  centuries  and  centuries  they  stood  still  or 
retrograded.  Crimes  were  sanctified  in  war  and  poli- 
tics; the  evil  past  became  a  fetich;  impetuosity,  anger, 
hatred,  revenge,  falsehood,  lust,  were  tricked  out  in 


Hermitry  49 

the  apparel  of  virtues,  and  made  the  aims  and  the 
glories  of  the  leisured.  It  was  the  associative  method 
of  education  that  produced  such  results.  And,  after 
the  great  purgation  of  the  race,  they  were  amazed  to 
see  how  blind  they  had  been.  Would  any  civilised 
parents  agree  to  send  out  their  child  into  the  wilderness 
there  to  spend  the  educable  period  of  life  amongst 
savages,  primitive  in  their  instincts  and  habits,  even 
if  the  savages  had  the  most  persuasive  and  influential 
missionaries  amongst  them  who  would  change  them  in 
a  few  years  into  civilised  beings?  Yet  this  was  what 
their  ancestors  had  been  doing  when  they  concentrated 
youth  in  schools  and  universities. 

Never  before  the  age  of  twenty-five  were  the  L,ima- 
noran  youth  allowed  any  freedom  of  social  intercourse, 
and  then  only  for  brief  periods  and  under  the  super- 
vision of  sages.  And  if  there  was  any  sign  of  atavism 
apparent  in  them  at  their  first  draught  of  social  life, 
back  they  were  sent  into  isolation,  that  their  character 
might  be  strengthened,  and  the  stage  of  peril  passed. 
Even  when  socially  enfranchised,  their  first  companions 
had  lived  beyond  their  fiftieth  year.  By  that  boundary- 
line,  it  was  held,  all  the  risk  of  atavism  had  passed,  and 
all  the  chances  and  possibilities  of  the  character  had 
been  discovered  and  provided  for.  It  was  not  till  the 
seventy-fifth  year  that  anyone  was  supposed  to  be  fit 
for  parenthood;  for  then,  though  the  faculties  and 
powers  still  went  on  improving  even  till  death,  most  of 
them  had  reached  the  maturity  of  self-control  and  inter- 
subordination;  then  reason  had  begun  to  be  master, 
and  all  the  stages  of  the  development  of  man  before  the 
final  purgation  of  the  race  had  been  traversed. 

Only  a  few  years  before  this  epoch  in  their  lives  were 
they  permitted  to  look  into  the  deeper  mysteries  of 


50  Limanora 

existence.  The}'  thought  it  one  of  the  strangest  pieces 
of  inversion,  if  not  desecration,  to  place  religious  ideas, 
as  we  did,  before  the  youngest.  Nothing  but  evil  could 
come  of  such  an  attempt.  With  the  Limanorans  it  was 
the  final  initiation  into  life  to  acquaint  their  grown 
men  and  women  with  the  sublimest  thoughts  and 
doubts  and  emotions  on  the  purpose  of  existence;  it 
was  the  copestone  of  their  education;  after  all  the  field 
of  knowledge  had  been  traversed  by  them  and  all  the 
reverences  had  been  instilled  into  them,  the  last  rever- 
ence was  revealed  to  them.  Then  and  not  till  then 
were  they  capable  of  realising  its  fulness.  Communi- 
cated in  childhood  or  early  youth,  before  the  powers 
were  mature,  before  the  animal  and  savage  stages  of 
development  had  been  gone  through,  it  could  end  only 
in  gross  familiarity  or  gross  superstition;  the  noblest 
and  most  inward  of  thoughts  and  emotions  would  be 
misunderstood.  What  was  it  that  had  made  their  old 
religions  so  stagnant,  so  obstructive  to  all  advance,  but 
this  mistaken  principle  of  attempting  to  teach  the 
holiest  and  deepest  ideas  to  the  young!  It  made  their 
ancestors  cleave  to  crude  superstitions  as  if  divine 
and  refuse  to  give  up  any  item  of  their  childish  ideas 
of  them.  So  thoroughly  are  the  sources  of  our  youth- 
ful impressions  lost  in  the  mists  of  the  past  that  an}' 
connected  with  reverence  seem  to  come  from  the  divine 
eternity  beyond  birth. 


CHAPTER  V 


JOURNEY   TO   THE   VALEEY  OF  MEMORIES 


ONE  of  the  things  this  people  feared  most  was  en- 
slavement to  the  past  ;  and  I  was  encouraged 
to  strip  my  mind  of  all  sentiment  connected  with  the 
life  I  had  led  before  my  arrival  and  all  superstitious 
devotion  to  the  historic.  Bury  the  dead  past,  was  one 
of  their  primary  maxims.  Nor  would  they  permit  re- 
ligion or  any  other  conservative  element  to  hallow 
tradition.  The  world  is  well  quit  of  what  it  has  been, 
was  another  of  their  sayings.  They  seemed  to  look 
upon  the  past  as  a  fierce  pursuer  ever  ready  to  overtake 
and  strangle  them.  Out  and  away  from  it  were  they 
ever  hurrying.  It  was  the  dark  shadow  over  existence. 
And  into  the  future,  into  the  future  and  the  sunshine, 
they  cut  their  way  through  the  thick  tangle  of  life. 

I  was  much  surprised,  then,  after  I  had  been  admitted 
to  the  full  confidence  of  my  proparents,  to  hear  them 
refer  with  pleasure,  if  not  joy,  to  what  seemed  nothing 
but  a  glorification  of  the  past.  The  name  Fialume 
came  repeatedly  into  their  conversations  with  each 
other  till  at  last  it  roused  my  curiosity.  There  was 
something  imaginative  in  the  ideas  connected  with  it; 
it  never  rose  to  their  lips  without  bringing  into  their 
eyes  a  beautifully   piteous  expression   that  bordered 

51 


52  Limanora 

almost  on  the  ecstasy  of  joy.  They  saw  that  they  had 
piqued  my  curiosity;  and  before  I  had  asked  them  they 
gave  me  the  information  I  desired.  The  word,  Fialume, 
translated,  meant  "  the  valley  of  memories."  It  was 
the  great  library  and  university  of  the  island.  There 
the  second  stage  of  education  was  largely  passed.  If 
by  the  age  of  fifty  all  superstitious  veneration  of  the 
past  had  been  eradicated  from  the  nature  of  the  new 
citizen,  he  was  led  to  this  valley  day  after  day,  month 
after  month,  until  he  had  seen  the  career  of  the  race, 
and  had  grown  familiar  with  the  steps  of  its  develop- 
ment; he  learned  to  shudder  at  the  darkness  out  of 
which  it  had  come,  and  to  watch  with  joy  the  growing 
light  and  the  fleeing  shadows  as  it  neared  the  present. 
Thus  did  he  learn  true  gratitude  for  what  he  was,  and 
true  reverence  for  the  future  towards  which  they  were 
all  striving.  I  was  not  yet  fit  to  enter  the  precincts  of 
the  valley.  I  had  still  too  much  of  that  anguished  yet 
exquisite  homesickness  for  my  own  past  to  be  trusted 
with  insight  into  a  past  that  might  seem  great  to  me. 
And  yet  my  probation  would  be  shorter,  as  my  buried 
world  was  so  different  from  theirs;  there  would  be  less 
danger  of  superstitious  reverence  awaking  in  me  for  any 
of  their  old  stages  or  antiquated  institutions,  and  no 
danger  of  Ayala  stirring  my  idolatrous  devotion.  This 
new  word  puzzled  me,  they  saw.  And  they  explained 
that  it  was  but  the  older  name  for  the  same  valley;  it 
meant  "  the  resting-place  of  the  untrammelled."  In 
fact,  their  great  library  and  university  was  their  grave- 
yard too. 

Years  passed  in  happy  renovation  of  my  whole  be- 
ing, body  and  soul.  As  I  looked  back  I  began  to 
shudder  at  the  past  out  of  which  I  had  come,  its  low 
ideals,  and  its  still  lower  planes  of  living;  it  seemed 


Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories     53 

centuries  behind  me  and  not  mere  years;  it  had  grown 
into  a  murky  cloud  on  the  far  horizon.  I  could  see 
how  often  I  had  been  on  the  verge  of  despair  or  disease 
and  began  to  know  the  blindness  and  ignorance  that 
had  been  almost  the  air  I  breathed.  I  shrank  in 
horror  from  all  I  had  been;  for  I  could  examine  the 
poor  fabric  of  it  almost  microscopically  now.  There 
was  little  fear  indeed  of  my  ever  longing  for  what  I  had 
left  behind  me. 

Thus  at  last  there  came  the  supreme  moment  that 
I  had  laboured  for.  I  was  to  be  permitted  to  visit 
Fialume.  I  shall  never  forget  the  day.  I  had  swept 
out  of  my  mind  analogies  for  their  great  graveyard 
from  the  doleful  surroundings  of  death  to  which  I  had 
been  accustomed  in  my  native  land,  the  long  train  of 
mourners,  the  ghastly  hearse  with  its  burden  of  mor- 
tality, the  unkempt  grass  of  the  place  of  tombs,  the 
dreary  wait  beneath  the  unsympathetic  sky;  and  then 
the  rattle  of  the  clods  upon  the  coffin-lid,  and  the  frantic 
effort  to  drive  from  the  soul  the  thought  of  the  gradual 
corruption  of  the  body  and  the  final  residue  of  skull  and 
bones.  Years  though  I  had  been  in  Umanora,  I  had 
never  heard  of  a  funeral.  Indeed  deaths  were  as 
rare  as  births  in  a  community  that  had  striven  to  avoid 
the  lavish  waste  of  nature,  and  had  so  studied  the 
human  frame  as  to  know  how  to  arrest  decay  of  its 
powers  and  to  give  every  individual  full  possibility 
of  developing  himself  and  through  himself  his  race. 
The  reckless  and  indiscriminate  bearings  and  dyings 
of  the  old  world  were  no  advance  on  the  course  of  the 
animal  or  even  the  vegetable  sphere;  the  higher  the 
organisation  the  fewer  the  young  and  the  greater 
the  care  of  them.  But  man  in  other  lauds  had  still, 
with  all  his  thought  and   foresight,   the  extravagant 


54  Limanora 

method  of  nature,  and  had  increased  and  multiplied 
without  stint  in  order  that  an  occasional  exception 
might  help  by  favouring  conditions  to  lead  the  race 
onwards  and  perhaps  upwards.  Thousands  of  Alex- 
anders and  Cromwells,  of  Mahomets  and  Socrates,  of 
Homers  and  Dantes  and  Shakespeares  had  lived  and 
died  unknown,  because  they  had  not  been  born  into 
the  circumstances  which  fitted  their  peculiar  faculties. 
This  people  had  seen  that  the  method  of  nature  was 
haphazard,  if  not  heartless,  that  the  rate  of  progress 
could  be  indefinitely  accelerated  if  every  child  that 
was  born  were  born  with  a  definite  purpose,  and  his 
life  were  guarded  and  extended  till  that  purpose  was 
fulfilled.  They  meant  every  act  of  generation  for  a 
definite  advance.  Birth  and  death  were  in  the  hands 
of  the  race  and  not  of  chance,  and  thus  it  was  that  I 
had  never  seen  or  heard  of  obsequies  during  the  many 
years  of  my  probation. 

So  my  difficulties  were  solved  by  my  guardians  be- 
fore we  set  out  for  the  national  place  of  tombs.  Yet 
my  curiosity  was  as  active  as  before.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  my  new  life.  How  could 
its  wonders  surpass  those  of  the  past  years!  And  I 
was  all  eagerness  to  stud)'  the  past  history  of  this  noble 
race,  to  study  the  gradual  ascent  to  the  height  they 
had  now  reached. 

The  whole  atmosphere  wras  jubilant  as  we  rose  into 
its  upper  levels  and  thrilled  with  light  and  electricity; 
even  unseen  living  forms  from  other  stars  mingled  with 
the  sunlight  that  supplied  so  much  for  the  support  of 
our  being.  There  was  not  a  cloud  to  mar  the  purity 
of  the  ether,  inspired  with  wandering  breaths  of  wind. 
We  rose  joyous  and  bright  under  the  gleam  of  the  sun, 
I  alone  having  my  exhilaration  somewhat  dashed  by 


Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories     55 

the  consciousness  of  my  laggard  gait;  for  my  limbs 
were  not  yet  light  enough,  my  arm  and  leg  muscles 
not  strong  enough,  to  accomplish  any  but  the  briefest 
journey  upon  wings,  and  that  in  the  most  awkward 
and  shambling  way.  I  was  borne  in  one  of  their 
faleenas  or  weight-transference  flies;  it  was  one  of  the 
smallest,  yet  I  had  room  to  move  about  freely  in  the 
car  in  spite  of  the  baggage  of  the  troop.  It  was  not 
unlike  a  huge  tropical  butterfly  that  I  had  admired  in 
a  case  in  one  of  our  museums;  the  car  was  long  and 
narrow  and  pointed  like  a  boat  at  either  end;  from 
each  side  stretched  out  wings  that  were  enormous  be- 
side the  body  they  carried;  and  these,  rainbow-hued, 
seemed  to  fill  the  whole  air  through  which  we  passed 
with  a  solid  gleam,  so  quickly  did  they  shuttle  up  and 
down;  aft  extended  slantwise  two  great  antennae-like 
shafts  that  moved  hither  and  thither  to  defeat  the 
baffling  puffs  of  wind  and  so  direct  our  flight;  along 
the  keel  lay  the  engine  that  produced  the  beat  of  the 
wings,  silent  and  motionless  as  if  it  were  but  a  shaft 
that  strengthened  the  framework.  There  was  no  vibra- 
tion, in  spite  of  the  great  speed  of  the  faleena.  A  huge 
awning,  so  high  above  us  as  to  be  out  of  reach  of  the 
wings  at  their  fullest  stretch,  seemed  to  hold  us  easily 
aloft  at  whatever  level  we  desired,  and  to  let  us  gently 
down  whenever  the  wings  beat  slowly  enough  to  be 
seen  as  they  moved  up  and  down.  It  was  in  one  of 
these  slow  movements  that  I  discovered  the  principle 
of  these  sails;  they  were  made  of  the  wonderful  metal, 
irelium,  and  had  its  properties  of  lightness,  tenuity, 
and  strength;  I  had  noticed  as  they  flashed  solidly 
through  the  air  that  there  was  an  alternation  in  the 
flash  of  greater  or  less  sheen;  I  now  saw  that  each 
wing  consisted  of  two  fine  plates  of  open  scroll-work 


56  Limanora 

sliding  over  one  another  back  and  forth;  in  the  upward 
stroke  the  holes  were  open  so  that  the  air  passed  easily 
through,  and  the  whole  expanse  looked  like  a  delicately 
reticulated  fan;  in  the  downward  stroke  the  upper  plate 
so  slid  over  the  lower  that  the  apertures  of  both  were 
completely  closed,  and  the  wing  formed  a  solid  sheet 
of  metal.  I  afterwards  saw  how  simply  this  was  ac- 
complished. The  under  irelium  network  had  but  one 
motion,  that  on  the  hinges  attached  to  the  side  of  the 
car,  but  it  had  grooves  on  its  fore  and  aft  edges;  into 
these,  corresponding  projections  on  the  upper  network 
fitted,  moving  in  them  easily  by  means  of  small  half- 
hidden  wheels;  this  upper  plate  was  attached  to  inde- 
pendent hinges  on  a  long  rod  that  was  drawn  back  and 
forth  about  half  an  inch  by  a  connection  with  the  driv- 
ing engine;  its  motion,  however,  was  completely  con- 
trolled by  the  ligatures  that  drew  the  wing  upwards 
and  downwards,  so  that  they  should  ever  be  in  harmony, 
and  the  closing  of  the  pores  should  occur  only  at  the 
beginning  of  the  downward  beat,  and  their  opening 
only  at  the  beginning  of  the  upward  beat.  The  effect 
to  the  eye  was  very  beautiful;  the  transparency  of  the 
metal  let  the  coloured  light  of  the  sky  shine  through  it 
even  when  solid ;  but  when  reticulated  the  azure  seemed 
to  form  into  a  flashing  loom  of  the  finest  lace.  I  could 
not  cease  gazing  at  the  ever-shifting  lights  that  played 
through  the  embroidery  of  the  wings.  It  was  pleasing 
to  the  ear  as  well:  for  the  whirr  and  creak  that  usually 
accompany  the  flight  of  great  birds  and  the  movement 
of  machinery  were  used  up  as  undertones  to  a  grand 
but  simple  musical  march  that  seemed  the  very  spirit 
of  the  beat  of  the  wings. 

For  a  time  these   sights  and  sounds  held   me  en- 
tranced, so  that  I  was  scarcely  conscious  of  our  ascent. 


Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories     57 

When  the  power  of  the  charm  had  freed  my  senses, 
I  looked  down,  and  my  heart  leapt  into  my  mouth; 
eagles  being  swept  from  the  island  by  the  blast  of 
the  storm-cone  appeared  to  me  as  flies  crawling  over 
the  sun-glitter  of  the  houses  below  or  on  the  snows  of 
Ljlaroma.  I  shrank  back  breathless  at  the  sight,  and 
imagined  myself  falling  down  this  heart-sickening  dis- 
tance. Then  the  almost  irresistible  desire  to  throw 
myself  into  this  abyss  came  over  me,  and  I  clutched  at 
the  framework  of  the  car  that  I  might  not  yield  to  this 
feeling. 

I  had  forgotten  my  companion  for  the  time:  one 
glance  at  her  drove  the  terror  from  my  mind.  I  saw 
the  beauty  of  the  benignance  that  shone  upon  her  face, 
and  my  spirit  nestled  in  her  protecting  smile  that  had 
interpreted  aright  the  horrors  of  my  thoughts.  I  was 
not  merely  thankful  that  I  had  not  been  alone  with  my 
terrible  longing:  I  could  almost  give  my  life  up  to  this 
being  who  swept  out  my  fear  by  the  loving- kindness  of 
her  glance.  My  guardians  had  been  unwilling  to  trust 
me  alone  in  the  faleena,  even  though  the  engine  and 
the  machinery  were  simple  enough  to  have  been  man- 
aged by  a  child.  So  they  sent  with  me  Thyriel,  who, 
I  long  afterwards  found,  had  been  selected  by  the  sages 
as  my  spiritual  twin  as  soon  as  they  had  tested  my 
past  history,  my  faculties,  and  my  possibilities.  None 
other  in  the  whole  community  was  so  fitted  to  stimulate 
my  best  qualities,  to  be  preferred  by  me  as  intimate 
friend  and  comrade  or,  if  passionate  emotions  followed 
the  same  direction  as  friendship,  to  mate  with  me  as 
parent  or  proparent,  when  full  maturity  had  been 
reached.  This  I  came  to  know  only  when  all  had 
fallen  out  as  they  had  anticipated  and  desired.  We 
were  both  allowed  our  full  option  and  free  will  in  our 


58  Limanora 

spiritual  approaches  and  agreements:  we  were  not 
forced  into  each  other's  company,  only  when  oppor- 
tunity for  mutual  protection  or  confidence  came  were 
we  paired  for  the  venture.  Everything  issued  as  they 
had  planned  just  as  if  we  had  had  no  free  choice  in 
the  matter,  and  yet  our  impulses  felt  as  free  as  if  we 
had  been  the  only  living  organisms  in  the  universe. 
We  chose  with  a  passion  that  would  not  be  denied;  we 
were  willing  in  our  freedom  of  attraction  to  surrender 
life  and  all  to  each  other. 

This  flight  was  one  of  the  first  great  adventures  on 
which  we  were  together,  and  it  is  graven  upon  my 
very  heart.  Thyriel,  O  Thyriel,  I  await  thee  with  soul 
weary  of  waiting!  What  are  the  years  now  but  cen- 
turies without  thee  ?  I  am  alone  but  for  God  and  thee. 
It  is  the  only  consolation  of  my  soul  that  thou  risest 
ever  towards  God  and  livest  in  God,  and  that  I  rise 
and  live  with  thee. 

It  is  exquisite  pain  (and  delight  too)  for  me  to  tell 
of  that  flight  into  the  ether;  for  then  I  first  realised 
how  incomplete  was  the  sum  of  my  existence  without 
this  being.  She  was  so  gentle  and  yet  so  strong,  so 
full  of  eager  sympathy  and  yet  so  vigorous  of  character. 
She  knew  every  weak  point  in  my  system,  and  bent 
herself  to  correct  its  weakness  or  protect  me  from  its 
effects  without  making  me  conscious  of  her  sacrifice. 
With  power  that  I  could  not  but  acknowledge  as  the 
superior  of  mine,  she  played  the  companion  and  equal. 
I  could  have  worshipped  her  almost  as  a  divinity;  but 
she  modestly  bent  herself  to  my  level,  and  veiled  her 
superiority  in  her  childlike  playfulness.  I  shrank  in 
fear  from  the  implied  familiarity,  and  could  not  bring 
myself  to  recognise  except  intellectually  the  common 
humanity  and  the  difference  of  sex.     For  years  I  felt 


Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories     59 

too  much  adoration  to  pass  into  love.  It  was  indeed 
long  before  I  could  admit  myself  capable  of  her  friend- 
ship. But  gradually  she  led  me  to  put  more  confidence 
in  my  powers,  and  to  recognise  the  superiority  of  some 
of  them.  My  intellectual  admiration  took  a  warmer 
glow  that  soon  fused  our  intercourse  into  the  most  de- 
voted friendship.  So  braced  were  we  by  our  mutual 
help  in  our  common  pursuits  that  we  seemed  helpless, 
the  one  without  the  other.  Yet  the  sense  of  sex  was 
not  stirred  for  years  after  the  bond  between  us  had 
grown  inseverable. 

It  was  this  flight  that  first  awakened  me  to  the 
wealth  of  her  nature  and  her  immeasurable  power  and 
desire  of  self-sacrifice.  Like  her  people,  she  had  none 
of  the  statuesque  beauty  or  moulded  regularity  of 
feature  that  has  swayed  the  thoughts  and  passions 
of  European  sex;  but  the  spirit  that  shone  through 
made  the  face  divine.  I  rested  almost  as  in  a  dream, 
as  I  felt  the  benignance  of  her  soul;  and  before  long 
I  was  able  to  look  calmly  over  with  her  at  the  increas- 
ing depths  of  light  through  which  we  had  come.  Be- 
low us  we  saw  valley  and  hill  pearled  with  the  gleam 
of  wide-scattered  houses;  we  could  see  the  flash  of 
streams  and  rivers  as  they  broke  through  the  darkness 
of  forests  or  fell  in  snowy  cascades;  and  around  the 
coast  the  sea  spun  for  the  black  fringe  of  rock  a  mov- 
ing thread  of  surf.  Around  us  rose  the  carolling  of 
many  voices  to  the  gates  of  heaven.  Song  after  song, 
anthem  after  anthem,  burst  forth  from  the  various 
groups  of  our  comrades.  Buoyant  were  they  as  thistle- 
down, revelling  in  the  pure  serenity  of  the  upper  air. 
For  very  joy  I  could  have  thrown  myself  among  them 
and  joined  the  harmony  of  their  flight;  but  her  glance 
was  upon  me,  and  I  returned  to  thoughts  of  prudence. 


60  Limanora 

She  showed  me  why  we  had  risen  so  high  into  upper 
air  far  above  most  of  the  Limanorans  who  were  flying 
with  us.  These  faleenas  could  not  adapt  themselves 
to  the  varying  winds  as  the  human  figure  and  arms 
could  when  managing  wings.  They  had  to  rise  into 
the  regions  of  calms  or  of  steady  winds,  in  order  that 
they  might  float  by  power  of  sail  down  to  their  destina- 
tion. What  seemed  a  mere  awning  acted  in  two  ways; 
it  served  as  aeroplane  to  steady  the  whole  structure  in 
the  air  and  as  parachute  when  it  began  to  descend;  and 
could  be  inflated  with  heated  air,  to  help  the  wings  in 
raising  the  faleena  upwards.  She  pointed  out  in  the 
far  distance  below  us  a  gleaming  line  that  marked  the 
valley  towards  which  we  were  voyaging,  and  then 
looking  at  a  height-gauge  that  hung  beside  her  steering- 
seat  and  at  a  wind-gauge  that  stretched  over  the  side 
of  the  car,  she  decided  by  a  brief  calculation  that  we 
had  reached  the  proper  key-place  of  the  arch  we  were 
making  in  our  journey,  and  that  we  should  by  chang- 
ing our  course  wing  our  way  with  ease  down  to  the  de- 
sired goal.  She  touched  a  notch  in  the  side  of  the  car 
and  above  there  sounded  a  flute-like  note,  that,  varying 
in  strength  and  pitch,  made  no  disharmony  with  the 
music  of  the  wings.  I  looked  up  and  there  I  could 
see  the  awning  gradually  collapse  ;  it  had  bulged 
downwards,  I  had  noticed,  in  a  strange  wa}r  ;  the 
tenseness  of  its  curves  disappeared,  and  as  we  began 
to  fall,  it  became  concave,  and  broke  the  velocity  of 
our  descent. 

The  wings  still  plied  with  bewildering  swiftness  of 
beat,  and  forced  us  onwards  as  we  shortened  our  dis- 
tance from  the  earth.  We  still  could  hear  the  music  of 
our  comrades,  but  so  softened  by  the  ong  space  between 
that  I  could   have  imagined  it  the  spheral  harmony 


Journey  to  the  Valley  of  Memories    61 

of  orbs  which  circle  round  the  throne  of  God.  But  I 
could  see  them,  dim  flakes  of  light  in  the  azure  as  they 
outdistanced  us,  the  few  laggards  that  had  skimmed 
above  us  for  a  short  time  still  showing  the  outlines  of 
their  forms,  yet  rapidly  lessening  into  star-specks.  I 
was  gazing  out  at  them  with  the  exhilaration  of  the 
outlook  and  of  the  ether  in  my  blood,  when  the  wings 
suddenly  began  to  labour  with  short,  irregular  beat.  I 
glanced  at  Thyriel.  She  kept  her  face  unmoved,  as 
she  examined  the  engine  beside  her  and  the  various 
keys  and  wheels  and  hinges  of  the  machinery.  I  took 
courage,  for  she  looked  quite  unconcerned,  yet  I  could 
see  that  she  had  not  discovered  the  cause  for  the  uneasy 
motion  of  the  wings.  She  told  me  that  she  would  have 
to  examine  the  outside,  but  that  I  might  keep  my  mind 
at  peace,  for  there  was  no  danger.  She  adjusted  her 
wings  and  dived  from  the  side,  then  rose  to  our  swiftly 
descending  faleena,  and  by  the  strength  of  her  muscles 
seemed  to  stay  the  descent,  while  she  looked  at  all  the 
gearing  of  the  sails  from  below.  Then  she  climbed  into 
the  car,  and  began  to  work  at  a  small  pump  in  the  fore- 
part. I  ran  to  help  her,  and  in  a  few  minutes  I  felt  the 
faleena  buoyant  again  and  holding  its  own  against 
gravitation;  we  had  refilled  the  balloon  of  the  awning 
enough  to  keep  her  afloat.  Thyriel  stopped  the  engines 
and  let  the  sails  lie  lazily  out  on  the  same  plane  as  the 
car,  then  she  fastened  a  cord  to  the  bow  and,  having 
adjusted  her  wings  again,  seized  the  cord  and  leapt 
over.  I  saw  her  purpose:  she  was  towing  the  maimed 
faleena  through  the  air,  still  at  a  great  height  from  the 
earth.  We  were  near  enough,  however,  for  me  to  see 
as  I  looked  over  the  danger  we  had  escaped.  We  had 
been  falling  upon  a  group  of  pinnacled  and  serrated 
rocks  that  would  have  gored  our  vehicle  and  endangered 


62 


Limanora 


my  life.     Moreover,   we  were  still  a  long  way  from 
Fialume. 

Thanks  to  the  cessation  of  onr  music,  the  attention 
of  the  distant  aeronauts  was  drawn  to  onr  laboured 
flight.  It  was  not  half  an  hour  before  we  saw  them 
hastening  back  to  meet  ns  like  a  swarm  of  butterflies; 
and  in  a  few  minutes  more  they  were  beside  us.  I 
watched  their  evolutions  in  the  air  with  absorbed  de- 
light; and  ere  I  knew  what  they  were  about,  they  each 
held  a  cord  from  the  bow  of  onr  faleena,  and  Thyriel 
was  on  board  with  me  directing  onr  flight.  How  lond 
their  chorus  sounded  now  that  they  were  near!  They 
timed  the  beat  of  their  wings  and  the  straining  of  their 
cords  to  it,  and  we  sped  on  onr  downward  way  even 
more  quickly  than  before.  I  did  not  know  till  long 
after  how  great  was  the  danger  ont  of  which  I  had 
escaped.  Yet  I  was  conscious  of  my  comrade's  courage 
and  that  to  her  I  owed  much.  It  brought  us  closer 
together  in  spiritual  friendship,  and  we  seemed  to  feel 
ourselves  singled  out  of  mankind  for  mutual  confidence. 


CHAPTER   VI 


FIALUME 


1WAS  revelling  in  the  thought  of  our  comradeship 
and  in  the  exhilaration  of  the  motion  through  the 
air,  when  the  chorus  began  to  soften.,  It  sounded  far 
off,  like  the  echo  of  an  echo,  and  out  of  the  distance 
rang  notes  of  welcome.  Our  company  burst  out  of 
their  low  tones  of  pleading  into  loud  triumph  aud  joy. 
Then  came  the  whispered  softness  of  their  former  song; 
answered  soft^"  as  if  from  the  hollows  of  the  earth. 
This  swelled  again  into  welcome,  and  the  air  rang  with 
notes  of  joy. 

My  eyes  followed  our  route;  and  beneath  us  I  saw  a 
huge  valley  forested  to  the  ridge  on  either  side  and 
spanned  with  a  glittering  roof  that  turned  the  light  of 
the  sun  into  myriads  of  many-coloured  gems.  Over 
the  cliffs  or  in  through  the  oliye-green  or  blossoming 
trees  swept  streams  with  rainbowed  cascades,  covering 
the  vast  dome  with  spray  till  it  seemed  an  arch  of  ice 
that  melted  in  the  sun.  We  made  for  the  entrance  of 
the  gorge,  out  of  which  fumed  and  fretted  through 
gates  of  pinnacled  rock  a  milky  torrent.  Borne  on 
mighty  pillars  of  limpid  metal  rose  a  great  archway; 
and  this  enclosed  lesser  semicircles  spanning  the  vari- 
ous roads  that  led  into  the  wild  tropical  scenery  of  the 

63 


64  Limanora 

dale.  I  never  saw  such  an  impressive  spectacle  be- 
neath human  roof.  Cataract  rose  above  cataract  in 
the  centre.  On  all  sides  fell  miniature  cascades,  or 
rose  fountains  that  sent  in  wayward  clouds  their  break- 
ing water-spears  and  flags.  The  flowers  and  shrubs 
and  trees  of  every  climate  under  heaven  seemed  to  be 
collected  here,  and  to  blend  in  marvellous  harmony  of 
colour.  Cool  winds  blew  from  hidden  sources  wafting 
the  fountain-spray  or  the  odours  of  the  flowers  about  us. 
The  beating  rays  of  the  sun  were  softened  by  the  stream- 
cooled  dome;  and  out  of  some  cave  or  hollow  in  the 
far  distance  came  the  murmur  of  entrancing  music. 

We  had  descended  and  passed  far  within  the  won- 
drous structure  before  I  could  recall  my  senses  from 
their  bewildered  enjoyment  of  the  scene.  Then  I  saw 
that  our  company  had  parted  in  various  directions, 
vanishing  in  groups  or  pairs  round  a  verdant  cliff  or 
into  some  overarching  bower.  I  was  left  alone  with 
Thyriel.  The  sudden  loneliness  of  the  vast  valley- 
hall  made  me  feel  the  delight  of  having  her  spirit  to 
lean  upon.  In  spite  of  the  companionship  of  the 
flowers  and  the  close  ranks  of  the  forest,  I  felt  the 
great  spaces  of  the  valley  solitary  because  of  the  lofti- 
ness of  the  roof,  like  the  arch  of  night  making  space 
seem  more  vast  than  under  the  warm,  indefinite  sky  of 
noonday.  Bewildered  and  alone,  my  thoughts  sought 
the  shelter  of  friendship. 

Not  long  had  I  felt  this  consolation  when  both  of  us 
were  in  the  shadow  of  a  nobler  and  more  mature  per- 
sonality. He  came  I  knew  not  whence,  and  the  sud- 
denness of  his  appearance  added  to  the  awe  I  felt  at 
once  for  his  character.  He  was,  I  was  certain,  one  of 
the  sages  of  the  community,  so  deeply  had  the  centuries 
engraved  their  experience   upon  his  face  and  spirit. 


Fialume  65 

There  seemed  to  come  from  him  even  before  he  spoke 
or  recognised  our  presence  a  benign  and  godlike  in- 
fluence, and  I  knew  at  once  the  greatness  of  his  soul. 
There  were  the  lines  of  long  struggle  and  complete  self- 
mastery  upon  the  countenance  like  the  curved  stratifi- 
cation and  cleavage  of  the  older  rocks.  He  had  not  to 
speak  before  I  had  surrendered  myself  entirely  to  his 
guidance.  He  who  had  seen  so  many  hundreds  of  years 
pass  over  the  earth  and  learned  all  the  lessons  they 
had  to  teach  was  the  natural  master  of  two  such  novices 
in  life  as  we  were.  For  I  now  felt  that,  however  superior 
Thyriel  was  to  myself  in  instincts  and  development 
and  beauty  of  soul,  she  was  completely  overshadowed 
by  this  spirit  of  centuries. 

Yet  when  he  spoke  to  us  we  felt  that  he  had  still  the 
elasticity  of  youth  about  him;  he  had  in  his  words  and 
actions  the  rapid  recoil  of  healthy  tissues  that  have  a 
long  career  before  them  yet,  and  in  his  faculties  and 
ideas  there  was  still  the  unlimited  capacity  of  develop- 
ment. After  explaining  that  he  was  to  be  the  inter- 
preter of  this  house  beautiful  for  us,  he  led  us  by  a 
maze  of  paths  through  the  blossom  and  the  verdure  to 
an  open  space,  from  the  centre  of  which  rose  a  noble 
flight  of  steps  flanked  by  porticoes  and  colonnades. 
These  we  ascended,  resting  at  times  on  broad  platforms, 
and  looking  out  on  the  fairy  scene  that  more  and  more 
unfolded  itself  to  our  eyes. 

At  last  we  stood  on  the  highest  platform,  not  many 
hundred  feet  from  the  gleaming  roof.  He  touched  a 
spring  here  and  there,  and  out  of  the  tessellated  floor 
came  rests  that  moved  automatically  with  the  move- 
ments of  the  head  and  eyes;  wherever  I  gazed  as  I 
reclined  thither  my  rest  wheeled  round.  This  I  after- 
wards discovered  was  managed  by  hidden  springs  in 


66  Limanora 

the  groove  in  which  the  head  rested.  These  were  rests 
of  observation,  and  the  purpose  was  to  allow  of  the 
whole  energy  and  consciousness  being  directed  into  one 
channel,  that  of  vision.  The  numberless  easy  methods 
of  rest  and  motion  that  this  people  used  would  have 
certainly  induced  sloth  and  luxury  but  for  their  in- 
herent energy  of  nature.  To  them  these  methods  were 
but  economisers  of  the  time  and  power  which  might  be 
spent  on  less  routine  work. 

I  soon  saw  that  the  valley  ran  more  than  a  score  of 
miles  into  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  its  deepest  hol- 
lows rising  now  by  easy  gradations,  again  by  bold  plat- 
forms of  rock  far  above  the  level  on  which  we  rested. 
For  the  dome,  I  could  now  see,  consisted  not  of  one 
span  whose  top  ran  horizontally  along  the  ridges  of  the 
valley,  but  of  hundreds  of  spans  that  rose  arch  above 
arch  up  the  slope  of  the  mountain.  There  was  some- 
thing in  the  terracing  of  the  valley,  too,  that  suggested 
the  hand  of  man.  Nature's  work  had  been  supple- 
mented and  rounded  by  noble  art.  There  was  regu- 
lar^ in  irregularity,  statuesque  beauty  amid  wild 
grandeur.  Human  thought  had  utilised  the  massive 
ideas  of  nature.  The  scene  would  have  overawed  the 
spirit  and  made  it  solitary,  but  for  the  familiarity  of 
minor  features  moulded  by  human  imagination  that 
had  not  geological  ages  and  forces  at  its  disposal. 

In  amongst  the  greenery  of  the  forest  stood  on  lofty 
pedestals  what  I  took  for  memorial  statues  of  the  dead, 
with  features  so  like  to  life  in  every  minute  line  and 
curve  and  even  graining  of  the  skin,  that  I  marvelled 
at  such  waste  of  human  energ}T  and  imagination.  My 
guide  soon  saw  my  mental  question,  and  showed  me 
that  they  were  the  dead  themselves.  The  moment 
after  every  trace  of  life  had  gone  from  the  body  it  was 


Fialume  67 

ireliumised  by  an  ingenious  process;  for  every  atom  of 
tissue  and  cell  there  was  substituted  one  of  irelium, 
and  thus  no  decay  could  approach  it;  it  would  retain 
for  untold  centuries  the  form  and  expression  of  the 
vanished  man  down  to  the  minutest  detail.  As  we 
passed  farther  back  into  the  valley  I  noticed  a  differ- 
ence in  the  appearance  of  the  statuesque  dead;  they 
had  not  the  hues  and  expression  of  the  living,  but  were 
leprous  white,  as  if  hewn  out  of  marble  with  infinite 
care.  I  appealed  to  Oolmo,  my  guide,  and  he  told  me 
that  these  were  their  dead  as  they  had  been  preserved 
before  the  age  of  irelium  and  the  discovery  of  the 
process  that  rapidly  changed  living  tissue  into  this 
metal.  At  that  period  the  body  used  to  be  buried  for 
years  in  stalactitic  caves,  where  the  percolation  of 
the  liquid  gypsum  turned  it  after  a  time  into  a  calca- 
reous statue. 

These  caves  ran  into  the  mountain  at  the  head  of 
Fialume,  and  were  now  used  for  converting  traceries 
and  forms  too  delicate  to  work  in  marble  into  white 
stone.  They  made  a  beautiful  contrast  in  ornamen- 
tation to  the  rainbow-hued  limpidity  of  irelium.  The 
process  had  been  too  long  and  slow  for  the  petrifaction 
of  the  dead.  And  about  the  same  time  as  the  method 
of  extracting  irelium  from  the  rocks  had  been  dis- 
covered, the  careful  study  of  the  petrifactive  methods 
of  nature  had  led  to  the  new  and  rapid  process  of  im- 
mortalising the  form  and  features  of  those  who  had 
passed  from  life. 

From  our  movable  rests  I  could  never  have  seen 
what  all  these  statues  were.  I  would  have  said  that 
this  was  the  island's  great  gallery  of  sculpture.  But 
there  were  other  things  that  Oolmo  pointed  out  to  us 
before  he  led  us  round  this  vast  hall  of  his  ancestry. 


68  Limanora 

He  showed  us  far  back  in  the  recesses  of  the  valley  up 
the  slope  of  the  mountain  what  looked  in  the  distance 
like  a  great  settlement  of  some  burrowing  animal. 
This  was  the  oldest  burying-place  of  the  island,  where 
had  been  laid  in  apertures  in  the  rock  the  urns  that 
contained  the  ashes  of  the  dead;  for  they  had  brought 
the  practice  of  cremation  with  them  in  their  primitive 
migration  from  the  south.  Then  followed  a  period  of 
superstition  and  recession,  in  which  the  priests  taught 
the  sacredness  of  the  human  form  and  its  final  resur- 
rection and  when  they  buried  the  bodies  deep  in  the 
earth  beneath  the  urned  rock  recesses.  A  period  of  re- 
action against  religion  followed,  and  sanitation  became 
one  of  the  first  essentials  of  the  new  scientific  era.  It 
was  feared  that  plagues  would  come  from  this  old 
burying-place  on  the  side  of  the  mountain,  if  the  per- 
colating waters  brought  the  corruption  of  the  rotting 
corpses  down  into  the  valley.  It  was  resolved  that  the 
remains  of  their  ancestors  should  be  dug  up  and  re- 
moved to  a  mound  made  for  them  on  a  level  with  the 
sea.  Then  it  was  found  that  almost  all  the  bodies  had 
become  stone  white  as  snow,  for  the  calcareous  perco- 
lations that  came  along  the  surface  of  the  rock  down 
the  hill  had  done  their  work,  and  an  accident  in  dig- 
ging up  one  of  the  lower  row  of  graves  revealed  the 
marvellous  stalactitic  caves  underneath.  There  had 
been  a  movement  towards  a  return  to  the  practice  of 
cremation,  but  it  was  stopped  at  once  by  this  discovery. 
The  caves  became  the  natural  burying-place,  and  out 
of  them  the  dead  were  brought  and  erected  in  the  val- 
ley when  they  had  turned  into  stone. 

After  we  had  viewed  the  whole  scene  from  our  plat- 
form under  Oolmo's  direction,  he  bade  us  enter  a  car 
that  had  sprung  up  at  his  touch.     It  seemed  made  of 


Fialume  69 

gossamer,  and  I  was  afraid  to  enter  it,  till  I  felt  the 
toughness  and  strength  of  its  material.  It  floated 
rather  than  ran  round  the  valley  above  the  tops  of  the 
tall  trees.  I  could  see  no  wheels,  and  there  were  no 
rails  for  them  to  travel  on  if  it  had  had  them,  nor  had 
it  any  wings  or  sails  like  our  faleena.  At  last  I  saw 
that  it  was  hung  by  a  transparent  cord  of  metal  from 
some  moving  force  in  the  dome  that  to  me  was  invisible. 
It  was  an  electric  car,  and  electric  currents  bore  it  aloft 
and  swept  it  along  with  lightning  rapidity.  But  a 
touch  of  Oolmo's  finger  broke  the-circuit  and  stopped 
it  in  a  moment. 

I  was  not  long  held  by  this  new  wonder,  for  beneath 
and  around  stretched  the  great  graveyard,  that  seemed 
a  harmony  of  forest,  wild,  and  garden.  We  rested  at 
intervals  of  a  few  miles  on  the  lofty  platforms,  descend- 
ing the  nights  of  steps  at  times  to  view  the  statuesque 
dead  and  their  surroundings.  Here  and  there  we  came 
across  groups  of  young  men  and  young  women  intently 
listening  to  strange  voices  that  seemed  to  issue  from 
some  hidden  being  within  the  statued  dead.  These 
were  students,  and  the  sounds  were  the  voices  of  the 
dead,  treasured  up  on  fine  tablets  of  irelium,  which 
could  either  be  read  or  made  to  re-utter  their  recorded 
words.  To  me  the  silent  bowed  figures  of  the  living 
seemed  the  lifeless,  the  whispering  dead  seemed  the 
living.  It  was  a  piece  of  necromancy,  I  felt  at  first; 
and,  but  for  my  questioning  intellect,  I  should  have 
shrunk  back  in  fear.  It  is  true,  I  could  not  see  the 
lips  of  the  erect  figure  move,  and  when  I  gazed  long 
enough  some  tremor  of  the  eyelid  would  betray  the  life 
of  the  listener;  but  for  the  first  few  minutes  the  illusion 
was  complete,  and  all  the  surroundings,  the  stillness, 
the  far  echo  of  wailing  music,  the  sombre  trees,  seemed 


70  Limanora 

to  confirm  it.  Every  new  group  we  encountered  pro- 
duced the  same  eerie  feeling. 

But  we  passed  on;  and  the  joy  which  filled  the 
spaces  of  the  great  valley  buried  the  sense  of  death. 
It  was  the  least  funereal  scene  I  had  ever  witnessed; 
for  along  the  paths  and  wide  tree-arched  avenues  went 
bands  of  carollers  singing  songs  of  triumph  and  glad- 
ness, the  air  was  sweet  with  the  perfume  of  flowers, 
and  masses  of  varied  colour  broke  the  olive  darkness 
of  the  groves.  The  world  was  at  once  jubilant  and 
harmonious. 

Farther  and  farther  into  the  valley  we  flashed  in  our 
lightning  car,  and  even  my  inexperienced  eye  could 
see  the  change  in  the  erect  dead.  Many  of  the  figures 
were  taller;  the  attitude  was  often  overbearing  and 
arrogant,  and  the  expression  was  generally  mean  or 
cunning  or  truculent  like  so  man}-  European  faces  when 
surprised  in  unconscious  repose.  The  farther  we  re- 
ceded, the  more  familiar  the  forms  and  features  seemed 
to  become,  so  like  were  they  to  the  normal  human  be- 
ings of  our  Western  world.  Animalism,  sensuous- 
ness,  rapacity,  vindictiveness,  cruelty,  fanaticism  grew 
more  and  more  frequent,  the  nearer  to  the  primitive 
graveyard  we  approached.  At  last  on  the  faces  of  the 
dead  that  had  been  dug  out  of  their  old  tombs  there 
was  the  manifest  touch  of  the  ape,  the  tiger,  the  wolf, 
or  the  snake.  I  shuddered  to  see  withal  the  regularity 
of  the  features  and  the  stature  and  grace  of  the  figures. 
They  came  nearest  of  all  to  the  ideal  beauty  and  the 
haughty  bearing  of  aristocratic  Europe.  It  scarcely 
needed  the  explanation  of  Oolmo  to  see  that  the  body 
had  then  been  developed  at  the  expense  of  the  soul. 
Underneath  the  handsome  and  generous  outlines  lurked 
the  beast  that  had  entered  into  the  making  of  ancestry. 


Fialume  71 

Splendid  animals  they  had  been;  and,  as  our  inter- 
preter explained,  given  up  to  war  and  field  sports  and 
at  intervals  debauchery,  or  to  the  over-reaching  of 
trade  and  money-making,  or  to  the  subtleties  and  false- 
hoods of  political  life.  They  belonged  to  the  age  just 
before  the  great  emigrations.  As  we  took  our  way 
back  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley,  I  could  notice  how 
rapidly  these  lordly  animal  forms  disappeared,  and 
yielded  to  the  compact  little  figures,  irregular  features, 
and  divine  expression  of  face  I  had  grown  accustomed 
to  in  the  L,imanorans. 

The  dead  were  grouped  in  families  and  in  order  of 
time  after  the  epoch  of  exiling,  and  a  student  could 
trace  the  growth  of  a  talent  or  virtue.  But  many  of  the 
family  groups  were  small ;  the  line  had  suddenly  ceased. 
In  these  I  could  see  after  a  time  an  occasional  evidence 
of  atavism  in  the  size  or  the  sensuousness  of  the  form, 
and  the  interpreter  explained  how  on  the  appearance 
of  this  recession  the  right  of  having  posterity  had 
ceased,  or  expatriation  had  occurred.  The  general 
sense  of  the  unfitness  of  an  individual  for  fatherhood 
or  motherhood  was  too  strong  in  the  community  to 
need  any  expression  in  public  resolve.  Those  who  felt 
this  great  misfortune  fall  upon  them  knew  that  their 
race  must  be  cut  off;  and  they  set  themselves  to  eradi- 
cate the  desire  of  family  life.  If  they  could  not  eradi- 
cate it  and  at  the  same  time  make  effort  to  subdue  their 
retrogressive  tendency,  they  had  to  go  into  exile.  At 
first  action  on  the  part  of  the  community  had  been 
needed.  Now  this  expurgative  policy  worked  almost 
automatically  and  without  friction. 

When  we  had  taken  a  comprehensive  view  of  Fia- 
lume, we  entered  another  faleeua,  which  had  been  sub- 
stituted for  our  disabled  car.     We  shot  farewell  glances 


72  Limanora 

at  Oolmo  and  were  off  in  the  air  before  I  had  well  dis- 
entangled my  thoughts  from  the  last  sight.  Below  us 
receded  the  massive  archways  of  the  door  and  the  foam- 
ing streams  at  the  entrance  of  the  valley.  The  jubi- 
lant music  began  to  grow  dim,  and  the  dome  shone 
softly  in  the  colours  of  the  sunset.  I  thought  we  were 
to  be  alone  on  our  return  journey,  and  began  to  ques- 
tion Thyriel  on  some  of  the  mysteries  of  the  day.  She 
had  not  much  light  to  throw  on  them,  for  she  was  her- 
self a  novice  in  life.  But  of  a  sudden  like  a  flock  of 
homing  pigeons  a  band  of  our  comrades  broke  out  into 
the  level  sunlight  from  the  mouth  of  Fialume;  and 
along  with  them  other  bands  that  streamed  east  and 
north  and  south.  Before  long  the  western  train  had 
overtaken  us,  and  their  voices  rang  like  carolling  at 
heaven's  gate.  They  saw  our  faleena  land  in  safety  at 
the  house  of  my  proparents,  and  then,  joined  by  Thy- 
riel, they  streamed  away  through  the  twilight  sky,  ever 
breaking  off  into  more  and  more  widely  separated 
groups  till  they  were  lost  across  the  horizon,  or  in  the 
darkness  of  some  distant  valley. 

Week  after  week,  and  at  last  day  after  day,  we  took 
our  path  through  the  azure  to  Fialume.  For  several 
years  under  the  direction  of  Oolmo  we  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  history  of  Limanora,  and  saw  the 
gradual  development  of  the  civilisation  and  of  the  hu- 
man form  and  faculty.  We  came  to  feel  how  naturally 
ends  followed  means  chosen  in  the  mind  and  frame  of 
man,  as  in  the  plant  creation  and  in  the  other  animals. 
We  saw  how  creative  had  been  this  community,  not  in 
the  arts  merely,  but  in  that  art  of  all  arts,  human 
nature.  They  had  moulded  generation  after  generation 
to  higher  and  ever  higher  purpose.  How  poor  and 
subsidiary  seemed  all  the  sciences  when  compared  with 


Fialume  75 

this  great  practical  science,  the  knowledge  to  mould 
man  into  any  required  form,  to  bend  his  energies  ever 
upwards!  Every  week  there  grew  upon  us  the  con- 
sciousness that  there  was  no  more  plastic  material  in  the 
whole  world  than  the  human  soul,  when  it  had  reached 
a  certain  stage  of  development. 

Oolmo  traced  for  us  each  new  faculty  and  power  and 
virtue  to  its  starting-point,  and  showed  us  how  feeble 
it  was  to  begin  with,  and  how  rapidly  it  grew  when 
once  artificial  effort  was  turned  upon  it.  At  first  it  was 
the  physical  powers  that  he  drew  our  attention  to;  in 
family  after  family,  for  example,  he  showed  us  how  the 
capacity  of  flight  had  been  acquired,  and  how  the  hu- 
man frame  had  gradually  become  adapted  to  it;  the 
bod}-  grew  lighter,  the  shoulder  and  breast  muscles 
stronger,  the  bones  hollower,  the  arms  longer,  and  the 
legs  shorter,  with  greater  strength  at  the  heels. 

He  acknowledged  that  there  was  something  peculiar 
in  Limanora  that  made  this  adaptation  easier;  a  mag- 
netism seemed  to  come  from  the  earth  that  made  the 
force  of  gravitation  less;  there  was  also  something 
more  exhilarating  in  the  atmosphere  and  climate  that 
differentiated  it  from  all  other  lands.  This  explained 
why  I  had  so  rapidly  acquired  the  tripping,  noiseless 
gait  I  had  so  admired  when  first  I  saw  Noola.  There 
had  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the  earth  when  the 
human  body  was  so  light  and  agile  in  proportion  to  its 
size  that  a  few  coincidences  in  nature,  as,  for  example, 
the  increase  of  swift  land  and  tree  enemies,  would 
have  made  it  ultimate^  winged.  That  was  the  geo- 
logical epoch,  when,  after  a  period  of  great  contraction 
and  increase  of  density  (the  period  of  the  huge  saurians 
and  other  monsters  of  the  prime),  the  orb  had,  through 
volcanic  explosions  within  it  and  the  impact  of  myriads 


74  Limanora 

of  aerolites  on  its  crust,  expanded  its  texture  and  par- 
tially volatilised  its  internal  elements.  Since  then  it 
has  been  cooling  down  within,  and  thus  growing  less 
in  size,  though  losing  none  of  its  mass;  this  can  be 
seen  in  the  twistiugs  and  foldings  of  the  rocks  and  the 
enormous  wrinkles  on  its  surface.  The  result  has  been 
that  animals,  and  men  with  them,  have  been  growing 
heavier  for  their  size.  The  possibility  of  man  becom- 
ing a  flying  race  has  passed  away.  L,and  and  sea 
animals  have  no  longer  the  chance  of  developing  into 
birds  of  the  air;  and  even  some  of  the  tribes  of  winged 
things  have  almost  surrendered  their  prerogative  of 
flight;  nothing  but  embryo  and  unused  wings  remain 
to  them.  It  is  only  in  exceptional  spots  like  L,imanora, 
where  the  magnetic  conditions  and  the  spongy  nature 
of  the  interior  of  the  earth  lessen  the  force  of  gravita- 
tion, that  men  could  ever  acquire  the  power  of  artificial 
flight  with  any  ease.  By  dint  of  the  application  of 
enormous  force,  and  of  inventive  mechanical  power, 
men  in  other  lands  may  master  the  art  of  aerial  voyag- 
ing; but  it  will  never  become  an  accomplishment  of  the 
individual;  there  will  be  too  much  strain  and  stress  for 
it  ever  to  grow  a  pleasant  mode  of  travel. 

Thus  Oolmo  flashed  light  upon  the  past  and  the 
future  as  we  traversed  the  groves  of  Fialume.  We  grew 
familiar  with  the  great  forces  of  the  universe,  and  their 
bearing  upon  the  problems  of  mankind,  and  gained  the 
true  perspective  of  existence.  I  felt  that  Europe  was 
but  standing  still,  reform  herself  and  advance  in  science 
and  art  and  civilisation  as  quickly  as  she  might. 
European  man  himself  was  not  progressing,  but  only 
the  external  results  of  his  individual  efforts.  It  w7ould 
take  ten  thousand  years  for  the  huge  nations  of  Europe 
to  make  the  step  upwards  that  these  islanders  made  in 


Fialume  75 

a  day.  Material  progress  meant  nothing  to  the  Lima- 
norans  unless  it  meant  also  the  progress  of  the  men 
themselves  in  capacity,  in  power  of  attaining  higher 
and  higher  goals. 

Year  by  year  I  came  nearer  to  the  special  purpose  of 
my  education.  As  we  passed  over  the  family  groups 
of  the  island,  and  learned  their  sciences  and  arts,  both 
Thyriel  and  myself  began  to  feel  drawn  to  one  branch 
of  investigation  above  all  others.  Every  family  had  a 
special  department  of  the  civilisation  assigned  to  it, 
and  for  generations  it  had  cultivated  this.  To  prevent 
narrowness  of  view  in  its  members,  and  to  enable  all  to 
understand  the  value  and  purpose  of  the  work  of  each, 
a  long  tract  of  their  youth  was  devoted  to  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  departments  of  human  knowledge  and  pro- 
gress. And,  that  no  section  of  life  might  be  left  at  the 
mercy  of  accident,  there  worked  with  the  representa- 
tives of  every  family  one  or  two  supernumeraries. 
Thus  new  blood  was  introduced,  for  the  alien  was  gen- 
erally chosen  from  a  family  not  even  distantly  con- 
nected, and  had  such  a  nature  and  temperament  as 
would  be  likely  to  lead  to  marriage  and  to  the  best  re- 
sults in  posterity. 

There  was  one  family  grove  to  which  I  was  specially 
drawn.  The  faces  of  the  dead  seemed  to  me  exquisitely 
beautiful;  the  natures  that  shone  through  their  petri- 
fied bodies  attracted  me  with  tenfold  power.  Every 
day  as  I  entered  Fialume  I  felt  inclined  to  bend  my 
steps  thither,  and  the  close  of  the  day  generally  found 
me  amongst  them.  Oolmo  tried  with  some  amusement 
to  himself  to  break  me  of  the  habit,  which  yet  grew 
stronger  and  stronger.  And  Thyriel  showed  the  same 
tendency.  Perhaps  one  feature  which  gave  great  at- 
traction to  the  place  was  its  seclusion;  it  was  almost 


76  Limanora 

the  only  family  grove  that  had  not  two  or  three  study- 
ing the  records.  Here  we  were  generally  left  to  our 
own  companionship;  for  Oolmo  had  often  to  go  when 
we  arrived  there;  and,  with  our  common  tastes,  we 
found  the  time  far  too  short. 

At  last  I  came  upon  the  explanation.  We  were 
studying  the  growth  of  some  feature  through  the  gen- 
erations, and  I  had  remarked  to  Thyriel  how  like  she 
was  to  this  family  in  character  and  appearance,  when 
suddenly  the  foliage  parted  near  where  we  stood  and 
disclosed  three  figures,  two  of  whom  seemed  to  my  uu- 
discriminative  eyes  facsimiles  of  the  last  of  the  group 
which  had  been  irelinmised.  The  feeling  of  worship 
was  aroused  in  me,  for  I  felt  in  them  the  beautiful 
nature  of  Thyriel,  and  besides  this  the  atmosphere  of 
years  and  experience  mellowing  it  and  making  it  seem 
loftier  and  more  divine.  The  third  was  different  and 
yet  as  noble,  and  when  I  gazed  into  her  face  I  found 
the  solution  of  a  problem  that  had  begun  to  perplex 
me,  the  source  of  those  characteristics  of  Thyriel  which 
made  her  different  from  the  two  others  and  from  the 
family  group.  The  last  was  her  mother;  the  other  two 
were  her  father  and  aunt.  This  was  the  treasure-house 
and  sleeping  place  of  her  ancestry.  Her  own  relation- 
ship had  instinctively  drawn  her  to  it,  and  my  natural 
kinship  with  her  had  attracted  me  there. 

We  were  now  to  begin  the  special  study  which  was 
to  make  us  useful  working  members  of  the  community, 
filling  our  own  places  in  it,  and  serving  its  great  and 
final  purpose  with  our  own  labour  and  thought.  Many 
years  would  we  have  to  spend  in  this  secluded  grove 
mastering  the  knowledge  and  achievements  of  this 
family.  Its  distinctive  name  was  L,eomo,  which  meant 
earth-seers,   and  its  department  was  the  stud}-  of  the 


Fialume  77 

crust  and  inner  movements  of  our  orb.  It  was  one  of 
the  peculiarities  of  all  Limanoran  science  that  it  was 
art  too;  nothing  was  lost;  every  investigation  or  dis- 
covery or  law  had  practical  issue;  and  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  investigator  to  find  out  how  his  work  bore  upon 
the  progress  of  the  race  to  its  final  aim.  As  I  saw 
farther  and  got  deeper  into  this  study  I  discovered  that 
much  which  had  seemed  purely  speculative  was  most 
practical  and  relevant  to  the  purpose  of  the  race.  A 
shallow  view  would  have  rejected  nine  tenths  of  it  as 
useless  application  of  the  energies,  as  mere  fancy  think- 
ing. The  wider  my  knowledge,  the  more  my  admira- 
tion of  the  far-sight  of  these  investigators  grew.  They 
seemed  to  me  to  have  almost  the  gift  of  prophecy  as 
they  looked  at  the  facts  they  accumulated  and  the  con- 
clusions they  tried  to  draw. 

It  was  easy  to  follow  them  for  every  generation 
had  reduced  the  ancestral  writings  and  thoughts  and 
achievements  to  the  briefest  available  form,  and  in- 
dexed all  that  previous  generations  had  done.  It  was 
the  duty  of  ever}'  new  student  of  a  family,  after  he  had 
finished  his  general  education  and  seen  the  advances 
made  in  other  branches,  to  bring  all  his  ancestors'  re- 
searches and  suggestions  into  relation  to  these,  and  to 
place  a  brief  account  of  them  on  record  in  the  latest 
phraseology  and  scientific  light,  so  that  any  alien 
student  might  read  or  hear  with  understanding.  There 
was  thus  in  every  family  grove  a  summary  of  all  that 
was  known  or  achieved  in  its  department  of  science  or 
life.  And  this  great  graveyard  was  also  the  library  of 
the  race,  so  classified  and  summarised  and  indexed  that 
any  man  could  take  a  complete  survey  of  its  contents 
in  a  few  years.  There  was  the  living  index,  too,  avail- 
able in  every  grove.     Anything  that  was  obscure  could 


78  Limanora 

be  at  once  explained  by  the  representatives  of  the 
family.  Besides  these  there  were  families  whose  duty 
it  was  to  supervise  the  relationships  of  the  various 
sciences  and  branches;  they  could  point  out  to  the 
investigators  how  far  their  work  tended  to  overlap 
or  interfere,  what  was  futile  in  their  efforts,  what 
directions  had  still  to  be  taken  and  what  paths  to  be 
traversed.  They  permitted  no  piece  of  work  to  be 
wasted;  everything  was  correlated  by  them  to  the  pur- 
pose of  the  race  and  to  its  contemporary  efforts.  The 
boundary-lines  of  the  various  departments  were  defined 
and  mapped  by  them.  They  were  the  organisers  of 
research,  the  dividers  and  economisers  of  intellectual 
labour. 

But  they  themselves  had  their  separate  functions  and 
duties.  Some  had  the  faculty  of  order  exceptionally 
developed;  and  they  were  the  classifiers  of  the  com- 
munity aud  of  the  work  of  the  community.  Others 
had  the  logical  powers  in  especial  vigour;  and  they 
followed  out  the  philosophy  of  the  race,  the  correlation 
of  the  ideas  and  of  the  lines  of  reasoning.  A  third 
group  consisted  of  those  with  a  dominant  imagination; 
these  looked  into  the  future;  they  performed  some  of 
the  functions  of  imaginative  writers  in  Europe,  sketch- 
ing out  imaginary  routes  for  the  race  and  for  each 
family  into  the  unknown ;  but  they  also  covered  a  much 
wider  field;  they  put  into  form  and  expression  schemes 
and  projects  such  as  European  men  of  action  of  the 
most  romantic  careers  have  often  attempted  to  carry 
out,  but  have  seldom  been  able  to  put  into  words; 
these  were  not  allowed  to  interfere  with  action,  but 
the  ideas,  plans,  and  romances  the}7  invented  and  put 
into  shape  were  tested  and  accepted  or  rejected  by  the 
practical  men  whose  sphere  they  touched.     Imagina- 


Fialume  79 

tion,  it  was  held  by  the  L,imanorans,  was  apt  to  be  a 
futile,  if  not  mischievous,  faculty  through  want  of  its 
being  ranged  on  the  side  of  utility;  and  yet,  if  tram- 
melled and  yoked  to  the  necessity  of  practice  in  the 
individual,  it  came  to  be  stifled.  They  specially  culti- 
vated it  in  these  families  in  order  that  it  should  have 
full  scope  and  development,  but  took  care,  by  ranging 
these  families  with  those  that  superintend  the  purpose 
and  progress  of  the  race,  that  their  romances  should 
have  full  relevancy  to  the  goal  of  all  their  efforts. 
Many  of  the  projects  and  ideas  which  seemed  at  first 
the  most  fantastic  were  found  after  many  generations 
to  be  sound  and  most  possible  of  realisation. 

One  of  the  striking  features  of  the  civilisation  was 
the  complete  absence  of  a  literary  class  or  profession 
or  group  of  families.  The}'  smiled  at  the  "  pure  frip- 
pery "  of  European  literature,  which  used  imagination 
as  a  mere  means  of  entertainment.  It  seemed  a  com- 
plete inversion  of  the  natural. order  of  things  to  make 
that  faculty  which  was  the  prerogative  of  everyone  who 
could  speak,  and  the  servant  of  the  highest  purpose  of 
life,  into  a  special  art  to  suit  the  pleasure  of  the  idler 
hours.  They  held  that  the  man  who  had  thought  a 
thing  out  could  express  it  best.  So  they  trained  up 
every  citizen  to  the  fullest  power  of  lucid  and  final  ex- 
pression. In  their  language,  so  perfect  was  it,  there 
was  one  best  way  of  saying  a  thing;  and  everyone  who 
knew  the  language  aright  and  understood  the  thing 
could  find  this  best  way.  Style  as  a  matter  of  mere 
expression  they  laughed  at  as  linguistic  trickery;  the 
force  and  life  of  everything  lay  in  the  idea,  and  the 
expression  grew  out  of  that  and  was  a  part  of  it,  as 
the  colour  was  a  part  of  the  flower.  It  was  only  a 
clumsy  and  inchoate  language  that  could  admit  of  style 


8o  Limanora 

or  literature  as  a  special  art;  and  it  was  trifling  with 
one  of  the  most  divine  faculties  to  prostitute  it  to  the 
entertainment  of  leisure  hours;  it  was  to  class  imagina- 
tion with  the  arts  of  the  mimic,  the  buffoon,  and  the 
juggler. 

Art  for  art's  sake,  one  of  the  latest  creeds  of  the 
writers  of  Europe,  was  to  them  almost  blasphemy.  It 
made  the  garment  of  ideas,  the  garb  of  human  progress, 
into  a  separate  entity,  and  the  servants  of  God  into  the 
tailors  of  human  folly,  the  dress  more  than  the  figure 
it  clothed  and  the  body  more  than  the  soul.  Litera- 
ture without  the  intensity  of  the  loftiest  purpose  of  the 
race  was  but  a  tinkling  cymbal.  Expression  was  the 
gift  of  nature  to  every  civilised  man,  and  woe  to 
the  race  that  neglected  it  in  any  of  its  individuals,  the 
race  that  should  divorce  it  from  its  ideas,  that  let  the 
men  who  write  filch  the  glory  of  those  who  think! 

Like  strong  beliefs  had  they  about  the  profession  of 
teaching  as  separate  from  parenthood  and  investigation. 
It  meant  disloyalty  on  the  part  of  most  citizens  to  their 
most  immediate  duties.  Who  could  develop  the  in- 
stincts of  youth  and  be  so  deeply  interested  in  his 
future  welfare  as  those  who  were  bound  to  him  by  the 
ties  of  nature  ?  And  then,  when  he  had  matured  and 
needed  the  wider  education,  who  could  give  it  him 
so  well  as  those  who  were  most  familiar  with  its  special 
objects  and  themes?  If  he  was  to  follow  the  art  and 
knowledge  of  some  other  family,  the  sooner  he  went 
under  the  tutelage  of  its  representatives  after  his  intel- 
lectual life  began  the  better.  The  only  portion  of  their 
youth  that  the  young  men  and  women  could  spend 
with  profit  under  others  than  their  parents  or  proparents 
was  the  period  of  general  knowledge,  of  summarising 
the  results  of  the  whole  past.     The  representative  of 


Fialume  81 

one  of  the  supervising  families  alone  could  give  with 
ease  a  survey  of  the  whole  field  of  knowledge  and  art 
and  action.  They  and  they  alone  were  in  any  way  an 
approach  to  the  profession  of  teaching,  and  they  were 
saved  from  the  petrifying  influence  of  pedagogy  by 
their  wider  duties  in  correlating  the  sciences  and  arts, 
the  fields  of  knowledge  and  action.  Thus  reason  and 
the  emotions  were  kept  from  getting  benumbed  by  the 
vanity  of  a  too  easy  superiority.  The  beings  they 
pitied  most  in  the  world  were  the  despot  and  the  pro- 
fessional teacher;  for  these  get  buried  in  unreality  be- 
fore the  life  is  out  of  them,  and  are  so  unquestionably 
supreme  that  nothing  but  what  is  pleasing  to  their 
minds  dare  approach  them.  The)7  fall  out  of  relation 
to  truth,  and  it  is  difficult  for  them  ever  to  regain  that 
wholesome  fear  of  contradiction  and  that  shyness  before 
destiny  which  constitute  the  essence  of  sanity;  they 
have  to  become  intolerant.  The  schoolmaster  soon 
becomes  intellectually  barren;  the  despot  soon  falls  the 
victim  of  luxury  and  of  illusion.  For  the  sake  of  the 
grown  men  and  women  who  might  be  sacrificed  to  it, 
as  well  as  of  the  children  and  youth,  they  abolished  the 
profession  of  teacher.  Individual  training  was  the  only 
true  foundation  of  a  sound  progress.  Two  might  be 
permitted  to  form  a  companionship  in  education  and 
study,  just  as  two  might  form  the  friendship  of  mar- 
riage; but  that  was  only  when  the  periods  of  possible 
atavism  had  been  safely  traversed.  Nor  must  they  be 
wholly  given  up  to  their  comradeship;  the  parental 
influence  and  solitude  must  continue  to  govern  their 
lives. 

Thyriel  and  I  had  become  educational  companions 
and  friends;  but  every  item  of  our  education  was 
supervised  without  our  noticing  or  feeling  galled  by  it. 

6 


82  Limanora 

There  was  no  prying  into  details;  but  every  change 
in  our  character  and  every  stage  in  our  training  was 
tested  at  the  periodical  investigation  of  the  citizens. 
Our  parents  or  proparents  took  the  keenest  interest  in 
all  that  we  did  and  all  that  we  tended  to  become. 

Now,  that  our  specialisation  had  begun,  we  were 
put  wholly  under  the  care  of  Thyriel's  parents  and 
family.  I  still  returned  to  the  home  of  my  proparents, 
but  spent  the  hours  of  training  with  the  Leomo.  There 
had  evidently  been  discovered  in  the  preliminary  in- 
vestigation of  my  faculties  some  especially  suited  to 
the  pursuit  of  earth-seeing.  From  the  beginning  of 
my  journeys  to  Fialume  I  had  been  attached  to  this 
family  of  earth-seers,  and  the  result  confirmed  the 
decision;  my  tastes  all  developed  in  this  same  direc- 
tion, and  the  more  I  penetrated  into  the  mysteries  of 
the  science  and  craft,  the  more  deeply  interested  in  it 
I  became.  Every  day,  under  the  guidance  of  my  new 
friends,  I  listened  to  the  voices  of  their  ancestors  stored 
up  on  irelium  tablets;  for  these  tablets,  when  placed  in 
a  voice  instrument,  reproduced  the  exact  sounds  which 
had  engraved  the  letters  upon  them.  Their  written 
alphabet  was  in  fact  a  natural  one;  the  letters  were  the 
forms  produced  by  the  sounds  themselves  when  uttered 
by  an  instrument  that  blew  upon  loose  particles  of 
irelium  arranged  on  a  vibrating  disc  of  the  same  metal. 
By  a  simple  process  the  particles,  when  they  took  their 
form,  were  permanently  fixed  to  the  disc,  which  then 
became  an  everlasting  record,  easily  read  by  any  L,ima- 
noran;  or,  when  placed  in  the  voice  instrument,  speak- 
ing the  words  into  his  ear.  This  voice  instrument  was 
a  kind  of  organ,  whose  minute  keys  and  stops  were 
easily  controlled  by  the  ridge  of  letters. 

I  ever  preferred  to  listen  to  the  records  of  the  past 


Fialume  83 

instead  of  reading  them;  for  I  never  attained  great 
facility  in  deciphering  the  letters  because  of  my  own 
long  familiarity  with  the  English  alphabet  and  writing. 
But  Thyriel  could  read  the  tablets  with  great  ease; 
I  came  to  prefer  her  reading  to  the  sound  of  her  an- 
cestors' voices  although  these  gave  fuller  meaning  to 
the  ideas  they  communicated,  and  it  was  pleasant  to 
feel  that  she  was  listening  with  me  and  not  tiring  her 
throat.  Our  minds  seemed  to  become  one,  as  we  sat 
silent  and  motionless  with  ears  intent  on  the  statue  of 
some  one  of  her  forefathers.  There  was  a  strong  mag- 
netism from  the  dead  minds  gradually  welding  our 
souls  together. 

Yet  there  was  nothing  personal  or  emotional  in  our 
studies.  For  years  they  were  chiefly  historical,  watch- 
ing the  growth  of  earth-science  through  the  generations, 
seeing  the  share  that  each  member  had  in  its  develop- 
ment. How  little  they  knew  of  it  even  up  to  the  time 
of  the  exilings !  The  earliest  ancestors  groped  amongst 
barren  facts  and  their  classifications.  They  named  the 
rocks  and  the  elements  of  the  rocks,  and  speculated  on 
the  order  of  their  formation;  they  told  the  story  of  the 
growth  of  glaciers  in  the  original  Antarctic  land  from 
which  their  ancestors  had  migrated,  and  tried  to  ex- 
plain the  origin  and  development  of  the  strange  archi- 
pelago in  which  they  lived.  But  they  saw  no  practical 
application  of  the  resulting  theories:  even  when  they 
knew  the  stratum  and  its  trend,  they  often  failed  in 
their  directions  as  to  where  certain  minerals  would  be 
found  in  it. 

Still  the  strides  made  by  the  family  both  in  the 
knowledge  and  its  application  were  marvellous,  since 
the  island  had  been  purified  and  the  true  purpose  of 
their  civilisation  was  known.     An  instrument  that  I 


84  Limanora 

had  grown  accustomed  to  during  the  previous  or  gen- 
eral stage  of  my  education  enabled  me  now  to  see  at  a 
glance  the  improvements  of  each  age  or  generation. 
It  was  the  ammerlin,  which  might  be  translated  his- 
toroscope.  It  focussed  for  the  eye  and  ear  any  periods 
of  the  past.  The  whole  pageant  of  some  section  of  the 
history  of  any  man,  science,  or  object  could  be  flashed 
stereoscopically  in  a  few  minutes  on  a  dark  surface, 
whilst  all  the  sounds  that  accompanied  the  scenes 
would  be  reproduced  in  any  required  pitch  and  tone. 
It  was  one  of  the  duties  of  the  students  and  representa- 
tives to  take  numberless  sun  pictures  and  sound  pictures 
of  all  the  important  scenes  in  the  life  of  the  family  and 
in  the  development  of  their  science  and  art  and  instru- 
ments. In  order  to  reproduce  any  scene,  the  two  long 
strips  of  irelium  that  contained  the  series  of  momentary 
pictures  of  it  were  made  to  rotate  as  swiftly  as  they  had 
rotated'  when  receiving  the  impressions,  and  the  sun 
pictures  being  transparent,  light  and  magnifying  glasses 
threw  them  life-size  on  a  wall  opposite  the  spectator; 
the  lightning  movement  produced  the  full  effect  of 
action  in  life;  and,  as  all  the  tints  of  the  scene  had  also 
been  impressed  on  the  strips,  there  was  nothing  want- 
ing to  produce  the  illusion  of  life  but  the  voices  and  the 
sounds.  These,  too,  had  been  taken  on  an  irelium 
strip  and  this,  when  placed  in  a  voice  instrument, 
added  all  that  was  needed  to  make  the  whole  scene 
live.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  students  in  each  genera- 
tion to  single  out  the  most  striking  and  representative 
series  and  have  them  ready  mounted  in  the  instruments, 
that  any  new  scholar  might  in  a  few  days  take  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  whole  development  of  the  family. 
Thus  was  I  enabled  to  sit  and  study  the  past  as  if  I  had 
been  a  contemporary  and  eye-witness  of  it.     The  very 


Fialume  85 

music  that  accompanied  and  harmonised  each  act  and 
scene  was  faithfully  reproduced  as  loud  or  as  low  as  I 
desired.  I  had  but  to  touch  a  certain  spring  in  the 
historoscope,  and  raise  or  lower  the  tone. 

It  was  little  wonder  that  we  so  rapidly  covered  the 
history  of  the  family  and  its  achievements.  By  means 
of  the  work  of  former  students  we  were  able  to  avoid 
all  the  mistakes  and  unessential  details  of  the  route 
they  had  traversed;  and  Thyriel's  friends  pointed 
out  every  pitfall  that  edged  the  road,  every  by-path 
that  led  only  into  the  darkness  or  into  some  inextricable 
labyrinth.  Our  steps  were  watched  with  infinite  care; 
for,  with  all  the  knowledge  and  skill  we  had  already 
acquired,  we  were  but  infants  on  the  threshold  of  a 
universe  of  darkness.  What  was  twilight  in  the  future 
to  our  guides  was  to  us  midnight  blackness.  That 
was  no  science,  they  held,  which  did  not  flash  light 
upon  the  gloom  before  us;  and  their  whole  efforts  were 
bent  on  turning  every  fact  and  law  into  a  prophecy  and 
every  student  into  a  foreseer  as  well  as  a  seer  in  his 
own  science.  The  limited  faculties  of  man  fenced  in 
by  narrow  bounds  the  future  into  which  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  see;  but  they  were  ever  extending  these 
bounds  and  creeping  towards  the  infinite. 

It  took  but  a  few  years  to  master  the  recorded  lore 
of  the  Leomo,  the  work  of  our  predecessors  had  made 
it  so  easy,  and  it  was  an  epoch  in  our  existence  when 
we  began  the  practical  part  of  our  training.  We  were 
by  no  means  done  with  Fialume,  but  less  time  was  now 
devoted  to  its  historical  and  theoretical  studies.  I  well 
remember  the  morning  when  our  guardians  and  guides 
informed  us  we  were  fit  to  see  the  practical  applica- 
tions of  the  science  throughout  the  island.  Taking 
some  new  apparatus,  they  embarked  me  in  a  kind  of 


86  Limanora 

faleena  which  had  been  invented  since  I  came  to  the 
island.  The  families  of  imagination  had  long  ago 
suggested  it,  and  one  of  the  families  engaged  in  the 
development  of  methods  of  flight  had  just  succeeded 
in  perfecting  its  mechanism  and  making  it  easy  to 
manage.  This  aerial  car  had  no  wings,  but  rose  by 
means  of  the  many  vacuum  tubes  which  were  the  most 
important  part  of  its  impelling  machinery.  A  power- 
ful electric  engine  created  and  destroyed  the  vacuums 
many  hundred  times  a  minute.  Each  tube  sucked  in 
the  air  ahead  and  expelled  it  with  great  violence  at  the 
stern  of  the  car.  Both  actions  aided  in  propelling  the 
faleena.  The  result  was  that,  though  not  so  graceful 
as  the  old  winged  car,  it  went  with  much  greater  swift- 
ness. Indeed,  laden  though  we  were,  we  kept  pace 
easily  with  the  -flight  of  my  companions  and  guides 
through  the  air;  and  its  parachute  attachments  ob- 
viated any  risk,  even  if  all  the  tubes  should  by  accident 
become  ineffective.  Its  chief  disadvantage  was  that  it 
could  not  rise  out  of  the  denser  air  of  the  lower  atmo- 
sphere, and  at  the  same  time  keep  up  its  great  speed. 
The  old  style  of  faleena,  or  farfaleena,  as  it  was  called, 
to  distinguish  it  from  its  new  rival,  the  corfaleena,  was 
still  kept  in  use  for  higher  journeys,  and  the  flight- 
families  set  themselves  the  problem  of  inventing  a 
means  of  propulsion  through  space  without  the  aid  of 
air.  One  dealt  with  the  possibilities  of  electric  cur- 
rents, and  experimented  on  the  method  of  alternating 
attraction  and  repulsion,  using  the  repulsion  in  the 
rear  of  the  car  and  the  attraction  in  front.  Another 
dealt  with  the  possibilities  of  the  rays  of  light  that  were 
ever  traversing  space,  experimenting  on  their  power  of 
starting  machinery  in  vacuo  and  keeping  it  in  rotation. 
A  third  made  effort  to  test  the  capacities  of  the  ether, 


Fialume 


87 


which  was  the  basis  and  medium  of  all  things,  a  more 
difficult  and  problematical  path  of  investigation,  yet 
one  not  to  be  abandoned  without  certain  proof  of  its 
impossibility;  for  many  apparently  insoluble  problems 
had  been  solved  in  a  manner  that  made  incredulity 
hide  its  head. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LEOMARIE) 

AS  I  was  attached  to  Leomarie  or  the  science  of 
earth-seeing,  I  did  not  follow  up  their  experi- 
ments in  the  building  of  air-cars;  I  only  saw  the  re- 
sults when  at  last  they  came  out  perfect  from  their 
hands,  and  greatly  admired  the  easy  and  swift  action 
of  their  corfaleena.  Over  the  hills  and  valleys  and 
plains  we  flew  close  enough  to  see  what  was  going  on 
upon  the  earth  below.  Again  and  again  we  passed 
over  long  wisps  of  steam  or  columns  of  dense  smoke. 
I  conjectured  that  the  steam  indicated  the  heat  wells 
like  that  which  penetrated  the  rock  near  the  house  of 
my  proparents,  and  supplied  every  chamber  with  heat 
or  power  as  required.  It  went  down  some  miles  into 
the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  could  be  closed  or  opened 
at  will  by  a  huge  lever  worked  by  the  steam  it  emitted 
itself.  The  denser  brooms  of  smoke  I  took  to  indicate 
the  sinking  of  their  artesian  power  wells  by  the 
leomoran. 

For  I  had  seen  ours  being  mined;  I  had  seen  the 
entrance  of  the  great  irelium  tube  into  the  earth,  ring 
within  ring,  and  its  slow  but  inevitable  work  from  day 
to  day  and  week  to  week.  The  principle  of  this  leo- 
moran or  earth  perforator  had  been  found  by  investiga- 


Leomarie  89 

tion  of  the  anatofny  and  method  of  work  of  the  pholas 
or  rock-boring  shell,  partly  chemical,  partly  mechani- 
cal. The  edge  of  the  lowest  ring  was  like  a  sharp- 
toothed  file  that,  as  it  rotated  by  means  of  power 
applied  from  the  centre  of  force,  wore  its  way  gradually 
into  the  rock,  the  ridges  of  the  file  being  as  hard  as  the 
diamond.  An  inner  ring-file  was  attached  to  it  on  the 
inside,  and  between  the  two  was  let  down  a  certain 
chemical  compound,  which  by  the  friction  of  the  files 
produced  little  explosions  in  the  rock  below  and  thus 
quickened  the  process.  Other  ring-files  followed  in 
the  same  way.  Another  chemical  compound,  differing 
according  to  the  character  of  the  rock  to  be  attacked, 
was  let  down  in  the  space  within  the  concentric  rings, 
and  rapidly  decayed  the  rock  so  that  it  ascended  like  a 
column  of  thick  black  smoke.  After  all  the  ring-files 
were  at  work,  the  leomorau  needed  little  guidance; 
for  by  an  application  of  the  principle  of  the  spectro- 
scope, its  use  of  the  chemicals  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  rock  became  automatic.  As  soon  as  the  volatil- 
ised mineral  that  ascended  out  of  the  rings  changed  its 
character,  the  beams  of  light  that  passed  through  it 
changed  the  spectrum;  and  the  new  spectrum  in- 
fluenced a  certain  solution  that  controlled  a  thread, 
and  this  thread  set  free  a  stream  of  the  proper  chemical 
compound  down  the  leomoran. 

A  still  more  striking  use  of  the  spectrum  was  the 
linoklar  or  spectroscope  analyst  and  recorder.  It  ana- 
lysed the  vapours  that  ascended  from  the  tubes,  and 
recorded  their  spectra  on  a  moving  strip  of  irelium 
that  was  guided  by  the  descent  of  the  leomoran  into 
the  earth.  Thus  anyone  could  see  what  strata  were 
passed  through  in  any  given  time  and  the  extent  of 
the  strata.     But  the  linoklar  did  much  more  than  this; 


90  Limanora 

whenever  it  struck  any  vein  that  had  the  much-desired 
irelium  in  it  in  any  quantity,  its  spectrum  released  a 
spring  which  opened  a  small  tube;  through  this 
streamed  the  irelium  vapour  into  a  cavity  of  the  earth, 
where  by  means  of  a  purifier  it  deposited  only  the  pure 
metal.  There  was  less  demand  for  the  other  metals, 
gold,  silver,  platinum,  tin,  copper,  iron.  But  there 
was  also  an  arrangement  for  separating  and  depositing 
their  volatilised  forms  in  other  cavities.  Thus  they 
were  able  to  have  more  than  they  required  of  the 
metals,  and  especially  of  irelium,  the  most  precious 
because  the  most  adaptable  of  all. 

I  was  now  to  see  a  further  development  of  these 
mining  instruments.  We  winged  our  way  to  a  part  of 
the  coast  which  was  farthest  from  the  surrounding 
islands  and  most  easily  protected  from  invaders  by  the 
storm-cone.  I  noticed  the  exceptional  lovvness  of  the 
sandy  beach,  as  shelving  as  that  on  which  I  had 
originally  landed;  there  were  none  of  the  great  bastions 
of  rock  which,  moulded  with  such  symmetry  of  terrace 
.and  escarpment,  barred  off  all  landing  on  the  island. 
We  directed  our  course  far  up  the  mountain  and 
alighted  on  a  rocky  platform  overlooking  the  sea. 
The  new  apparatus  had  been  sent  after  us  in  a  faleena 
and  was  now  placed  in  position.  A  cylinder  was 
erected  on  the  ground  and  attached  by  machinery  to 
wires  and  pipes  that  had  been  laid  from  the  centre  of 
force.  But  this  was  unlike  the  old  leomoran  in  having 
the  mouth  tightly  closed,  and  I  soon  saw  the  principle 
on  which  the  new  perforator  was  to  work.  The  air 
was  exhausted  in  the  cylinder,  and  then  a  powerful 
stream  of  electricity  was  made  to  pass  through  a  piston 
constructed  of  innumerable  wires  which  kept  moving 
with  lightning  rapidity  over  the  surface  of  the  rock  at 


Leomarie  91 

the  bottom.  The  success  of  the  experiment  soon  mani- 
fested itself;  for,  as  soon  as  a  spring  was  touched,  a 
valve  that  separated  the  end  of  a  projecting  tube  from 
the  air-tight  cylinder  was  opened,  and  out  streamed  a 
dense  column  into  the  atmosphere  above.  The  spring 
was  afterwards  managed  automatically  so  that  as  soon 
as  the  red-hot  electric  piston  had  eroded  enough  of  the 
rock  and  volatilised  it,  the  valve  sprang  open,  and  the 
moment  the  vapour  and  smoke  had  all  escaped,  it  was 
shut,  and  the  air  was  immediately  exhausted. 

We  returned  day  after  day  to  the  place  and  found 
that  the  new  perforator,  or  tirleomoran  as  it  was  called, 
worked  with  ten  times  the  swiftness  of  the  old  instru- 
ment. The  chief  objections  to  it  were  that  the  metal 
vapours  were  denser  and  more  offensive,  and  that  the 
irelium  cylinders  had  to  be  oftener  renewed  because  of 
the  great  friction  and  the  intensity  of  the  electric  heat. 
The  one  was  obviated  by  a  longer  smoke- tube  and  an 
application  of  a  vent  of  wind  from  the  storm-cone;  the 
other  was  obviated  by  longer  cylinders  and  refrigera- 
tive  packing  between  two  of  their  layers  of  irelium. 
But  the  strangest  result  —  strangest  for  me  at  least — 
was  to  come.  The  tirleomoran  descended  miles  beyond 
the  usual  force  well  into  the  crust  of  the  earth,  at  a 
great  rate  of  speed,  and  I  soon  saw  preparations  for 
some  change.  Great  channels  of  their  usual  metal 
were  laid  down  to  the  beach,  and  irelium  barriers 
erected  in  the  sea  along  the  shelving  shore  from  bas- 
tion to  bastion.  By  the  greater  rapidity  of  the  descent, 
the  increase  of  the  proportion  of  their  favourite  metal, 
and  the  ease  with  which  the  electric  current  volatilised 
the  material  below,  our  guides  judged  that  they  had 
reached  rock  that  was  already  molten.  Before  long 
there  began  to  ooze  out  of  the  smoke-tube  a  red-hot 


92  Limanora 

stream,  that  trickled  its  way  down  the  slope.  Then 
the  air-tight  lid  was  burst  off  the  cylinder,  out  of  it 
carne  the  electric  piston  on  a  wave  of  red-hot  lava,  and 
down  the  channels  the  thick  stream  of  molten  rock 
flowed  till  it  reached  the  barriers  in  the  sea.  There 
with  vast  columns  of  steam  it  cooled  and  solidified, 
forming  a  new  and  stronger  rampart  to  check  the  in- 
flowing fire.  Day  after  day  we  found  that  the  beach 
was  disappearing,  and  in  its  place,  when  the  steam 
cleared,  we  could  see  that  the  great  gap  in  the  bastion- 
works  of  the  island  was  filled  up. 

This  was  the  first  of  their  lava  wells  X  had  seen.  Its 
operations  explained  to  me  the  massive  symmetry  of 
the  rocky  shores  and  the  cyclopean  terraces  and  shoots 
down  the  mountain-sides,  that  had,  I  thought,  been 
either  chiselled  by  tens  of  thousands  of  years  of  slavish 
labour,  or  laid  by  the  hands  of  a  race  of  giants  now 
vanished  from  the  earth.  This  little  people  was  itself 
the  Vulcan  that  turned  the  bowels  of  the  world  into 
smelting-works  and  used  the  mighty  forces  lying 
underneath  the  crust  of  our  orb  with  the  ease  of  a 
smith  at  his  forge.  What  had  the  Ljmanorans  to  fear 
from  invaders  with  even  the  mightiest  war-engines 
that  had  ever  been  invented  ?  They  had  made  them- 
selves fortifications  which  would  outlast  the  attacks  of 
any  human  invention.  When  the  beetling  circle  of 
precipices  was  complete  around  their  island  who  could 
land  troops,  even  if  they  evaded  the  blast  of  the  storm- 
cone?  To  the  Iyimanorans  themselves  the  height  of 
their  shores  was  no  disadvantage;  in  fact  it  gave  them 
easy  starting-points  for  their  wing  expeditions;  they 
could  plunge  from  the  jutting  cliffs  into  the  air  and  so 
gain  impetus  for  their  flight. 

Thus  had  they  been  able  to  destroy  that  spirit  of 


Leomarie  93 

militarism  which,  after  a  certain  stage,  is  the  implacable 
foe  of  true  progress.  It  is  based  on  two  of  the  most 
childish  and  most  primitive  of  forces  in  the  human 
breast,  combativeness  and  the  passion  for  display. 
Hence  the  impossibility  of  stamping  out  the  contagion. 
Ever  and  anon  in  the  former  history  of  the  island  the 
age  of  peace  seemed  to  have  begun;  but  marauders 
from  abroad  would  land  and  stir  the  instinct  of  brigand- 
age and  make  an  army  and  a  military  leader  necessary. 
Thenceforward  again  all  the  arrangements  of  the  com- 
munity were  made  subordinate  to  the  ambition  of  the 
soldier.  An  intrusion  of  savagery  and  brute  force, 
however  veiled  in  glory  and  the  panoplies  of  civilisa- 
tion, is  irresistible  by  the  powers  of  peace.  Only  slow 
and  silent  conquest  of  the  armed  power  brought  back 
progress  in  peaceful  arts  again,  again  to  be  maintained 
and  thrown  back  from  some  external  accident.  Not 
that  they  ever  pretended  that  they  could  eject  struggle 
out  of  their  life,  but  they  did  aim  to  raise  the  plane  of 
conflict  and  competition.  Never  could  this  people 
have  entered  on  the  rapid  development  of  their  powers 
without  their  lava  ramparts  and  their  storm-cone  to 
keep  off  all  occasions  of  militarism. 

These  lava  wells  had  still  other  uses.  Out  of  their 
flow  were  made  the  rock  foundations  on  which  the 
houses  of  this  people  were  built.  It  puzzled  me  for 
years  to  know  how  they  succeeded  in  making  their 
immense  platforms  and  terraces  out  of  the  hardest  trap. 
Their  mansions  stood  out  from  the  precipices  and  cliffy 
sides  of  the  mountain  on  isolated  plateaus  that  gave 
the  inmates  free  view  on  every  side  and  free  circula- 
tion of  air  around.  They  rose  picturesque  and  romantic 
from  the  top  of  lonely  rocks,  like  the  castles  of  the 
Rhine,    dominating    the   whole   locality.       Down    the 


94  Limanora 

rocky  foundations  poured  at  times  torrents  of  water 
from  the  sluice-gates  of  the  mountain,  cleansing  or 
cooling  the  surroundings;  yet  never  was  there  any 
danger  for  these  everlasting  ramparts. 

Another  use  to  which  these  lava  wells  were  put  was  to 
modify  the  temperature.  They  were  generally  opened 
and  let  flow  in  the  coolest  months  of  winter,  and  the 
red-hot  cascades  falling  into  the  sea  heated  it  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  climate  of  the  whole  island  was 
mellowed  and  tempered.  From  the  wells  far  up  the 
slope  of  the  mountain  the  lava  flow  had  been  so  guided 
and  moulded  that  immense  channels  had  been  made 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  cliffs,  with  sides  as  lofty  as  the 
precipitous  shores  themselves.  Down  these  were  shot 
in  summer  great  avalanches  of  mountain  snow  right 
into  the  ocean,  so  tempering  the  strength  of  the  sum- 
mer heat. 

But  these' were  only  subsidiary  uses  of  the  tappings 
of  the  central  earth  fires.  Their  main  and  original 
purpose  was  to  relieve  the  perturbations  of  Ljlaroma. 
It  was  one  of  the  chief  duties  of  the  L,eomo  to  watch 
over  the  destiny  of  their  island,  which  was  volcanic 
in  its  origin,  though  it  had  been  greatly  added  to  in 
former  ages  by  the  coral  insect.  L,ava-streams  had 
overspread  the  coral,  and  then  the  myriads  of  minute 
architects  had  thrust  out  their  structures  farther  and 
farther  into  the  sea  and  thus  the  lowlands  had  been 
broadly  extended,  while  the  red-hot  layers  of  lava 
added  massiveness  to  the  body  of  the  island.  Yet  it 
was  continually  shaken  by  earthquakes  and  threatened 
with  partial  if  not  complete  disaster.  It  was  the  func- 
tion of  Leomarie  to  watch  the  approach  of  these  earth- 
quakes and  guard  against  them.  The  Leomo  had  the 
most  delicate  instruments  for  recording  every  tremor 


Leomarie  95 

of  the  earth's  crust.  They  had  also  thermometers  and 
electrometers  down  their  heat  wells  and  lava  wells, 
and  these  automatically  recorded  at  the  surface  every 
variation  of  the  heat  and  magnetism  of  the  earth. 
They  had  classified  through  many  centuries  all  the 
preliminary  and  concomitant  circumstances  of  earth- 
quakes, and  had  found  and  formulated  certain  causal 
relations  amongst  them.  Thus  the  minutest  symptom 
of  change  in  the  records  made  by  their  instruments 
roused  them  to  watchfulness.  They  were  soon  able  to 
tell  in  what  direction  the  explosive  materials  were  ac- 
cumulating and  how  far  below  the  surface  of  the  earth; 
then,  when  they  had  fixed  with  more  or  less  definite- 
ness  the  time  they  had  to  spare,  they  began  sinking 
lava  wells  right  into  the  perturbed  lake  of  fire.  The 
vent  acted  as  safety-valve;  the  shakings  of  the  island 
ceased  as  the  steam  roared  forth,  and  the  molten  rock 
began  to  yeast  down  the  side  of  the  mountain.  All 
danger  was  past  for  another  period  of  time.  Again 
and  again  throughout  the  past  ages  the  L,eomo  had 
saved  the  island  from  the  ravages  of  earthquake  and 
uncontrolled  lava-streams  from  the  crater  of  Lilaroma. 
Never  did  they  intermit  their  vigilance  or  cease  to  ad- 
vance their  knowledge  of  the  earth  and  its  habits  and 
laws.  It  seemed  to  me  at  first  that  nothing  could  occur 
in  the  crust  of  our  planet  which  they  would  not  foresee. 
I  came  afterwards  to  know  the  limits  of  Leomarie,  and 
the  reasons  why  they  pushed  almost  feverishly  forward 
to  further  knowledge.  They  were  ever  afraid  that 
something  unforeseen  might  occur  and  threaten  the 
stability  of  their  land  and  the  progress  towards  the 
nobler  life. 

Once  in  the  dark  ages  before  the  great  exilings  an 
appalling  disaster  had  occurred  which  ploughed  deep 


96  Limanora 

into  the  consciousness  of  the  people  the  necessity  for 
the  development  of  this  earth  science.  Their  central 
city  stood  upon  a  great  plateau  up  the  slope  of  L,ila- 
roma.  Within  recorded  memory  there  had  been  no 
great  outburst  from  the  mountain;  and  the  inhabitants 
travelled  fearlessly  up  to  its  rim  and  down  the  bowl  of 
its  crater.  At  times  there  had  been  slight  spittings  of 
ashes  and  once  or  twice  a  new  fumarole  or  hot  spring 
or  even  lava  fountain  had  opened  at  some  point  on 
the  mountain  slope;  but  these  were  all  at  a  distance 
from  the  bustling,  luxurious  city;  and  most  of  them 
had  awakened  slight  notice.  The  volcano  indeed  had 
been  practically  quiescent  since  the  great  migration 
from  the  Antarctic  regions  and  the  sealing  of  the  archi- 
pelago by  the  circle  of  fog.  The  citizens  were  keeping 
one  of  their  annual  feasts,  and  were  lapped  in  luxurious 
ease  and  pleasure.  They  had  been  exhilarated  by  a 
long  period  of  prosperity  and  a  recent  victory  over  the 
savage  clan  that  inhabited  one  of  the  adjacent  islands. 
The  country  people  and  a  number  of  hermits  living  in 
lonely  parts  of  Limanora  had  been  alarmed  by  various 
premonitory  symptoms,  sultry  clouds  turbaning  the 
head  of  L,ilaroma,  tremors  in  the  earth  more  and  more 
threateningly  repeated,  great  and  unaccountable  dis- 
turbances in  the  sea,  and  a  hot,  heavy,  brooding  atmos- 
phere around  the  whole  island.  Some  of  them  came  to 
the  city  and  warned  the  revellers  to  be  prepared  for  some 
catastrophe;  but  they  were  waved  aside  as  dreamers, 
mere  superstitious  disturbers  of  life  and  its  traffic. 
Half  the  city  was  gathered  together  in  the  central 
market-place  to  see  a  great  spectacle,  when  the  earth 
shook  beneath  them.  They  fell  on  their  faces  and 
cried  to  their  gods;  but  it  was  in  vain.  The  market 
stood  upon  a  plateau  high  above  the  rest  of  the  city, 


Leomarie  97 

overlooking  the  ocean.  Like  a  cap  this  platform  was 
blown  into  the  air,  and  all  the  pleasure-seekers  vanished 
like  smoke.  Out  on  the  sea  and  here  and  there  on  the 
land  a  rain  of  dust  fell  mingled  with  minute  pieces  of 
human  flesh ;  but  never  was  any  one  of  the  gathered 
thousands  found;  and  as  if  to  obliterate  the  traces  of 
her  ghastly  work,  the  mountain  sent  down  a  broad 
stream  of  lava,  which  filled  up  the  gulf  where  the 
market-place  had  been,  and  sealed  up  the  dust-buried 
city,  preserving  it  for  after-ages  like  a  fly  in  amber. 
Those  who  escaped  destruction  fled,  some  to  distant 
parts  of  Limanora,  some  to  other  islands;  but  all  were 
buried  for  centuries  in  grovelling  superstition.  It  was 
out  of  the  hermits  and  the  country  people  that  a  new  na- 
tion was  built  up,  which  set  itself  as  a  first  duty  to  es- 
tablish Leomarie,  that  it  should  not  be  taken  unawares 
by  any  repetition  of  this  great  catastrophe.  Nor  has 
it  ever  recurred,  although  there  have  been  many  pre- 
monitory symptoms.  The  lava  wells  or  vents  eased 
the  labours  of  the  internal  fires  and  saved  the  island. 

Their  new  and  deeper  wells,  driven  by  the  tirleo- 
morau,  and  reaching  the  internal  fires,  gave  them 
greater  sense  of  security.  Irelium  floats  were  let  down 
which  would  not  be  injured  by  the  great  heat,  and 
these,  communicating  with  an  indicator  at  the  mouth, 
told  of  every  disturbance  in  the  surface  of  the  lake  of 
fire.  All  the  indicators  were  connected  with  the  centre 
of  force,  and  automatically  recorded  there  all  they  had 
to  tell.  The  same  system  of  centralised  record  placed 
the  various  indications  of  the  climolans  or  earth-sensors 
at  every  moment  ready  to  the  hand  of  the  Leomo. 
These  climolans  were  down  every  force-well  and  told 
every  variation  in  the  heat,  the  density  of  the  air,  the 
kind  of  vapour,  the  magnetism,  and  the  movement  of 


98 


Limanora 


the  crust  of  the  earth.  No  change  in  the  earth  below 
the  island  down  to  a  distance  of  thirty  or  forty  miles 
(the  latter  the  greatest  depth  they  had  reached)  was 
neglected.  Every  indication  was  properly  tabulated 
and  classified,  and  year  was  compared  with  year  and 
month  with  month,  till  the  meaning  and  importance 
of  every  change  were  exactly  known.  The  furthest 
records  of  the  past,  as  well  as  those  more  recent,  were 
daily  consulted  in  order  to  find  the  generalisation  that 
would  fit  any  new  symptom.  The  L,eomo  felt  daily  the 
pulse  of  Iyilaroma  as  a  doctor  would  that  of  his  most 
valued  fever  patient.  They  knew  that  they  had  the 
fate  of  the  race  in  their  hands,  and  no  indication  was 
of  too  little  importance  for  them  to  consider.  What 
would  all  the  strivings  and  labours  of  the  nation  come 
to  if  any  laxit3r  on  their  part  should  allow  such  a  vol- 
canic catastrophe  to  recur  as  had  destroyed  the  capital 
of  old  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII 


RIMLA 


IN  studying  the  practical  aims  and  issues  of  earth 
science,  I  was  taught  to  manage  their  apparatus, 
and  to  interpret  every  tremor  in  the  earth's  crust  and 
every  indication  of  the  instruments.  I  had  already 
been  taught  to  make  their  apparatus,  for  my  physical 
discipline  had  begun  several  years  before  I  was  ad- 
mitted to  Fialume.  It  was  in  fact  one  of  their  primary 
maxims  that  muscular  exercises  should  go  on  contem- 
poraneously with  intellectual  and  spiritual  pursuits, 
that  no  citizen  should  be  allowed  to  neglect  for  even  a 
day  the  development  of  the  body,  intimately  as  the  soul 
was  interwoven  with  it.  As  soon  as  I  was  thoroughly 
tested  and  put  through  my  course  of  probation,  the 
training  of  my  muscles  was  begun,  and  along  with  the 
magnetic  moulding  of  my  brain-tissues  went  the  de- 
velopment of  the  force-tissues  of  the  body  and  the 
powers  of  my  senses.  But  no  one  was  permitted  to 
enter  their  great  practical  university  or  workshop  till 
he  had  become  a  certain  devotee  of  the  race.  The 
mysteries  and  arts  and  crafts  which  gave  the  nation  its 
peculiar  powers  could  not  be  communicated  to  anyone 
who  might  by  some  change  become  an  alien.  It  was 
thus  that  many  years  of  residence  in  Limanora  passed 

99 


ioo  Limanora 

before  I  was  admitted  to  one  of  the  marvels  of  the 
island,  the  great  valley  of  Rimla. 

I  well  remember  the  evening  of  my  initiation.  The 
night  work  was  as  a  rule  done  by  the  younger  men 
and  women  of  the  community;  the  elders  took  their 
turn  at  the  machinery  by  day,  as  they  had  to  husband 
sleep  during  the  hours  of  darkness  and  silence.  I  had 
often  wondered  whither  went  my  proparents  at  a  fixed 
hour  every  day;  they  vanished  in  the  distance  as  the 
sun  began  to  wester,  and  they  returned  at  evening  with 
high  colour  in  their  cheeks  and  the  look  of  having  used 
their  muscles  with  a  will.  Their  physical  life  seemed 
to  take  new  impetus  from  these  expeditions. 

One  day  on  their  return  they  told  me  that  I  was  to 
be  admitted  to  Rimla,  which  they  explained  to  mean 
the  centre  of  force.  The  mature  judgment  of  the  com- 
munity had  decided  that  I  could  now  be  fully  trusted. 
My  practical  and  muscular  education  was  to  begin.  I 
was  to  set  out  that  evening  with  a  band  of  young 
workmen  who  kept  the  first  watch  of  the  night. 

The  sun  had  scarcely  set  when  my  escort  arrived; 
and,  as  with  my  slow  powers  of  locomotion  I  could  not 
be  expected  to  keep  up  with  them,  I  was  placed  in 
one  of  their  flight-cars.  I  had  no  companion,  for  the 
whole  band  flew  in  front  and  drew  the  car  by  some 
magnetic  power  unseen;  and  it  was  so  light-hung  and 
so  balanced  by  wings  and  domes  and  parachutes  that 
it  seemed  capable  of  being  the  sport  of  every  wind. 
Over  the  central  ridge  of  the  island  we  swept  towards  a 
distant  slope  of  Lilaroma.  Suddenly  underneath  me 
in  the  growing  darkness  there  shone  out  in  a  deep 
broad  valley  a  vast  dome  of  light,  transparent  enough 
to  reveal  the  flitting  shadows  underneath  it.  It  seemed 
the  laboratory  of  a  world.     Innumerable  streams  flashed 


Rim  la  101 

under  its  upper  edge;  they  sped  from  the  summits  of 
the  surrounding  hills,  or  across  the  gorges  from  other 
and  more  distant  ranges.  I  had  seen  as  we  flew  hun- 
dreds of  noble  aqueducts  spanning  the  valleys  with 
their  arches  and  columns,  some  of  them  thousands  of 
feet  up  the  slopes  of  Ljlaroma.  All  the  waters  which 
the  great  mountain  gathered  from  the  clouds  of  heaven 
made  their  way  towards  this  marvellous  domed  valley. 
At  its  mouth  there  was  a  deep  gorge,  whether  artificial 
or  natural  was  not  clear  to  me  then;  and  through  the 
chasm  leaped  a  river  mightier  than  any  I  had  ever 
seen;  it  seemed  to  be  on  its  way  to  the  sea,  but  I  could 
not  trace  its  course  farther  than  its  massive  gateway 
out  of  the  valley.  Underneath  the  dome  I  could  see 
vast  wheels  of  irelium  move  at  all  levels;  they  seemed 
so  fragile  that  a  pebble  thrown  at  them  would  break 
them;  yet  each  turned  spindles  of  enormous  power, 
which  moved  swifter  than  lightning.  I  soon  saw  that 
all  the  intricate  machinery  was  sheathed  in  casings  of 
their  translucent  metal,  along  which  flowed  a  slow, 
glutinous  stream  of  some  liquid  that  dripped  through 
perforations  on  all  points  of  friction. 

As  we  alighted,  night  fell,  and  the  titanic  crystal 
workshop  gleamed  with  a  soft  radiance  that  seemed  to 
come  from  no  centres,  but  was  diffused  everywhere  in 
the  manner  of  the  sunlight  or  the  atmosphere.  It  was 
like  a  vast  ice  cave  of  the  Arctic  circle  lit  by  brief  and 
splendid  summer.  Fairy-like  yet  vast,  it  seemed  a 
fabric  of  some  dream-world;  but  the  splash  and  hiss 
of  the  forceful  waters  and  the  unresting  motion  of  the 
machinery  made  it  all  real  enough.  The  noises  were 
by  no  means  deafening ;  they  were  subdued  and  musical 
with  a  halo  of  mysterious  whisper  like  the  sounds  of 
nature  on  a  bright  day  of  summer.     Nor  was  the  sight 


102  Limanora 

bewildering  to  the  eyes;  there  was  too  much  symmetry 
in  it  to  perplex  and  dazzle. 

My  guides  and  companions  tripped  lightly  and  fear- 
lessly through  the  labyrinth  of  movement  till  they 
reached  an  edifice  underneath  the  dome  more  elaborate 
and  majestic  in  its  beauty  than  the  noblest  of  Gothic 
cathedrals;  its  towers  and  spires  and  pinnacles  seemed 
to  aspire  to  the  very  stars  as  we  looked  up,  and  yet  the 
loftiest  of  them  failed  to  reach  the  zenith  of  the  vast 
diaphanous  roof.  Towards  this  building  radiated  the 
moving  network  of  spindles  and  axles  that  the  flashing 
water-wheels  turned,  and  out  from  it  passed  great  trans- 
parent tubes  of  metal,  woven  together  fantastically  into 
a  forest  of  gigantic  trees  and  flowers.  Nothing  of  this 
arabesque  of  movement  marred  the  colossal  symmetry 
of  all  beneath  the  crystal  canopy.  The  church-like 
building  was  the  shrine  of  force.  In  it  we  found  one 
of  the  wise  men  of  the  elders  seated  on  a  high  throne; 
and  beside  him  stood  muscular  forms  read)'  to  do  his 
behests.  He  laid  his  hand  on  a  key-board  of  in- 
numerable keys,  each  of  which  was  marked  with  some 
hieroglyphic.  The  attendants  scattered  to  various 
points  along  the  mosaic  floor,  and  watched  the  working 
of  the  labyrinth  of  wires  and  tubes.  At  the  touch  of 
the  master  the  whole  edifice  vibrated,  and  a  sound  as 
of  the  most  sublime  orchestration  filled  the  vault.  We 
saw  countless  wheels  and  pistons  move  and  flash  be- 
neath their  transparent  metal  sheaths,  and  along  each 
tube,  now  lit  as  with  starlight,  wre  could  watch  the  rush 
of  vapours  or  liquids  towards  their  destination  in  the 
various  factories  and  houses  in  the  valley  and  along  the 
mountain-side. 

It  was  one  of  the  masters  of  physical  force  who 
manipulated  the  keys.     He  was  controlling  and  har- 


Rimla  103 

monising  the  vast  power  that  was  concentrated  in 
Rimla,  and,  instead  of  the  demoniac  jarring  of  the 
engines  and  machinery  which  I  had  been  accustomed 
to  in  the  industrial  centres  of  other  lands,  the  sounds 
of  the  marvellous  vault  made  sweet  concord  that  ever 
varied  with  the  transference  of  power  from  purpose  to 
purpose.  He  was  the  pointsman  of  the  numberless 
railroads  of  energy,  and  at  the  same  time  the  musician 
of  the  titanic  workshop.  His  will  disciplined  and 
guided  both  the  generation  and  the  distribution  of  all 
the  force  of  the  island.  Our  troop  took  the  place  of 
that  which  had  been  on  guard  through  the  sunset  and 
twilight,  and  separated  in  pairs  throughout  the  val- 
ley, each  pair  taking  under  its  charge  one  section  of 
the  labyrinthine  movement.  My  comrade,  Ooriel,  the 
cousin  of  Thyriel,  was  a  youth  of  splendid  build,  the 
strength  of  his  upper  limbs  seeming  almost  bovine,  his 
shoulders  and  arms  not  too  large  for  his  size,  yet  giving 
the  impression  of  gigantic  power.  I  soon  saw  how 
much  he  could  do.  We  were  to  inspect  the  generators 
of  force  underneath  the  dome.  He  first  led  me  to  the 
various  streams  which  came  leaping  down  the  slopes 
and  cliffs.  One  of  them  from  some  cause  only  to  be 
ascertained  at  the  cone  of  Lilaroma  was  swollen  into  a 
yellow  torrent  that  threatened  to  overflow  its  lava 
banks  and  flood  the  valley.  In  a  moment  he  saw  the 
danger,  and  rushed  to  the  wing-dam  dividing  the  upper 
course  and  controlling  the  amount  of  water  which 
should  flow  down  to  its  various  wheels  and  the  amount 
which  unused  should  find  its  way  to  the  great  exit.  He 
found  that  the  separating  barrier  had  lost  its  automatic 
motion  through  the  sudden  increase  of  the  overflow  and 
the  intrusion  of  a  huge  boulder  that  had  come  down 
like  a  battering-ram  upon  it.     He  set  me  to  guide  the 


104  Limanora 

machinery  and  power  that  moved  the  dam  to  suit  the 
strength  of  the  current,  and  then,  fixing  a  narrow 
irelium  shield  in  the  bottom  of  the  channel,  he  leapt 
into  the  torrent.  The  shield,  I  could  see,  keeping 
erect  just  above  him,  shed  the  stones  and  boulders  to 
this  side  and  that.  Thus  protected  he  raised  a  huge 
hammer  which  he  had  taken  with  him  and  by  three  or 
four  well-directed  blows  split  the  obstacle  into  half  a 
dozen  pieces;  he  then  bent  down  and  removed  them 
out  of  the  way,  and  suddenly  I  felt  the  steering-gear 
begin  to  work,  and  saw  the  dam  swing  round  into  the 
channel  leading  to  the  centre  of  force,  whilst  the  bulk 
of  the  torrent  found  its  way  into  the  exit,  which  was 
deeper  and  broader.  The  danger  was  past;  but  a 
moment's  hesitation,  either  in  order  to  bring  up  the 
heavier  tools  or  to  call  other  assistance,  would  have 
ruined  many  of  the  great  works  upon  the  levels  below 
and  stopped  the  whole  of  the  operations  of  Rimla  for 
several  days. 

Ooriel  shook  the  water  from  his  garments  as  he  leapt 
out,  and  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  on  his  way  with  me 
to  the  other  brooks,  cascades,  and  conduits  which 
gathered  the  aqueous  forces  of  Lilaroma  into  this  valley 
of  power.  Not  a  drop  that  fell  from  the  tributary 
clouds  about  the  head  of  the  mountain  but  did  its  work 
for  this  singular  people;  the  moisture-lifting  power  of 
the  sun,  and  the  force  of  gravitation  that  fought  with 
it  were  alike  made  the  servants  and  yoke-fellows  of  the 
Limanorans. 

They  refused  to  waste  the  energy  that  nature  gave 
them  so  freely.  This  I  saw  more  fully  illustrated  as 
I  followed  Ooriel.  Having  inspected  all  the  forms  of 
stream-power,  he  sped  round  to  the  side  of  the  valley 
nearest  to  the  western  shore  of  the  island;  there  in  a 


Rimla  105 

great  cave  or  hollow  in  the  rock,  brilliantly  lit,  I  saw 
myriads  of  wires  and  cables  concentrating  from  all 
westward  directions  on  an  immense  block  of  labramor 
or  irelium  alloy.  This,  he  explained  to  me,  was  the 
great  electric  storage-battery  of  the  waves.  From  the 
north-west  and  the  south-west  came  the  chief  storms 
and  currents  that  broke  on  the  shores  of  the  island;  and 
underneath  the  beetling  cliffs  of  lava  erected  on  the 
western  shores  they  had  a  line  of  long,  lofty  caves  run- 
ning some  hundreds  of  feet  underneath  into  the  land; 
in  these  huge  vanes  and  water-wheels  were  hung  from 
the  roofs  and  the  higher  portions  of  the  sides;  and  the 
waves  as  they  ran  in  and  out  beat  their  paddles  and 
made  them  whirl  with  lightning  swiftness.  The  mo- 
tion thus  communicated  was  turned  by  their  electro- 
generators  into  currents  of  electric  force  which  found 
its  way  by  the  network  of  wires  and  cables  that  I  saw 
into  this  enormous  storage-battery.  In  another  series 
of  caves  they  cooped  up  the  water  of  the  full  tides  by 
means  of  gigantic  dams  and  sluice-gates,  and  this  dur- 
ing ebb  drove  huge  wheels  and  turbines  and  thus  sent 
the  power  of  the  moon  into  their  treasure-house  of 
power.  Every  storm  that  ruffled  the  surface  of  the 
ocean,  every  current  that  swept  past  their  shores,  every 
ebb  or  flow  of  their  tides  added  its  quota  to  the  energy 
accumulated  in  their  electric  treasury,  a  far  more  won- 
derful concentration  of  wealth  than  any  Sindbad's  val- 
ley or  Golconda.  Here  was  ready  to  the  hand  of  man 
power  greater  than  all  that  the  nations  and  the  gen- 
erations had  ever  been  capable  of. 

And  the  winds  had  been  made  as  much  the  slaves 
of  this  people  as  the  waves;  for  another  great  cavern 
that  we  visited  was  the  storehouse  of  the  energy  of  the 
winds.     In   every  gorge   and   pass  and   gully   around 


106  Limanora 

Ularoma  up  almost  to  its  crater  had  been  erected  im- 
mense windmills,  which  as  they  revolved  generated 
electricity;  this  found  its  way  from  all  points  by  mas- 
sive cables  buried  in  the  earth  to  the  conservator 
of  energy  in  this  second  cave.  Ooriel  tested  the  wires 
to  see  that  they  were  not  leaking  anywhere  and  tested 
the  batteries  for  faults,  and  finding  everything  in  good 
order,  we  passed  into  a  third  power  treasury  in  the 
rock.  This  was  vastest  of  all;  for  into  it  there  poured 
the  energy  of  the  power-wells  which  was  not  needed 
by  the  private  houses  spread  over  the  face  of  the  island. 
As  soon  as  the  head  of  steam  was  shut  off  from  the 
machinery  or  the  tubes  of  any  mansion,  its  whole  force 
was  turned  upon  an  engine  near  the  mouth  of  the  well, 
which  kept  generating  electric  force  day  and  night. 
The  accumulation  of  energy  in  this  cave  of  the  wells 
would  have  been  enough  to  supply  ten  times  the  power 
that  Europe  had  ever  used  in  her  industries. 

In  order  to  round  off  our  tour  of  inspection,  Ooriel 
led  me  to  another  but  smaller  cave  which  had  just  been 
fitted  up  with  storage-batteries.  This  was  the  cave  of 
the  sun.  For  generations  it  had  been  contended  that 
most  of  the  power  from  the  sun's  rays  was  lost,  even 
when  they  reached  the  earth;  and  the  inventors  had 
at  last  worked  out  the  problem  of  its  utilisation.  I  had 
noticed  as  I  flew  over  the  country  in  a  faleena  vast 
gleaming  spaces  sparkling  like  gigantic  diamonds  in 
the  sunlight.  These  were  the  reflectors  which  collected 
the  sunbeams  and  concentrated  their  heat  and  light 
into  power.  Upon  the  slope  of  Lilaroma  they  utilised 
the  miles  of  snow  surface  and  gathered  their  gleam  into 
a  few  heat-engines  that  sent  the  generated  electricity 
into  Rimla. 

Vast  as  the  force  was  which  in  these  various  ways 


Rimla  107 

was  bent  into  the  service  of  this  people,  there  seemed 
still  to  be  the  need  of  increasing  it.  Never  a  week 
passed  without  some  facilitation  of  the  collection  and 
distribution  of  energy  by  an  improvement  in  the  ma- 
chinery. The  mechanic  families  were  ever  busy  com- 
peting with  one  another  in  invention  and  practical 
application  of  some  principle  or  idea,  and  the  pioneering 
families  who  rode  imagination  to  the  verge  of  practica- 
bility marched  ahead  of  them,  mapping  tracks  and 
highways  into  the  unknown  future.  One  proposal  was 
to  utilise  the  magnetism  of  the  earth  as  a  new  source  of 
energy,  and  ahead)'  one  of  the  mechanical  families  was 
far  on  the  way  to  its  realisation.  Another  that  was 
near  at  hand  was  the  use  of  the  expansion  of  their 
liquefied  and  solidified  air  for  purposes  of  power.  One 
plan  somewhat  farther  off  from  the  realm  of  practica- 
bility  was  the  utilisation  of  the  primal  ether  by  means 
of  its  compression  and  expansion.  Yet  the}-  were 
working  at  it  in  full  hope  of  finding  a  solution  of  the 
problem  at  some  unexpected  turn  of  their  imaginative 
road  into  the  darkness.  They  had  achieved  so  much 
that  they  had  almost  boundless  faith  in  their  ultimate 
power  to  solve  all  problems  presented  to  their  minds. 
They  would  face  the  death  of  the  whole  race  sooner 
than  the  thought  of  ceasing  to  push  forward  into  the 
night  that  encircled  life. 

My  mind  was  almost  paralysed  at  the  thought  of  the 
vastness  of  the  power  controlled  in  this  centre  of  force; 
but  it  explained  to  me  the  ease  with  which  they  could 
drive  their  leomorans  miles  and  miles  through  the  solid 
crust  of  the  earth,  the  power  the)-  had  over  the  vol- 
canic fires  of  Lilaroma,  the  strength  of  the  blast  they 
could  send  far  out  to  sea  from  their  storm-cone,  and 
the  general  facility  with  which  they  could  control  and 


108  Limanora 

use  even  the  most  titanic  forces  of  nature.  I  did  not 
wonder  now  that  they  were  the  masters  rather  than  the 
servants  of  nature,  especially  when  I  saw  that  by  the 
strength  and  nicety  of  their  machines  the}'  could  con- 
centrate all  this  tremendous  force  upon  any  single  point 
or  distribute  it  over  a  wide  area  at  the  striking  of  a  key 
on  the  great  key-board  of  forces.  I  have  seen  one  of 
the  masters  of  energy  turn  the  whole  current  from  the 
ten  thousand  services  it  was  doing  throughout  the 
island  upon  the  making  of  a  diamond;  so  enormous  was 
the  temperature  it  generated  in  a  few  moments  that  a 
piece  of  carbon,  submitted  to  the  heat  and  pressure, 
came  forth  a  magnificent  jewel,  gleaming  and  sheening 
in  the  light.  But  this  was  for  no  silly  purpose  of  per- 
sonal ornamentation ;  it  was  meant  for  the  friction  edge 
of  a  leomoran  down  where  it  bit  into  the  rock.  It  was 
the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  for  this  people  with  all 
the  concentration  of  power  the)'  had  at  their  call  to 
follow  nature  in  her  most  occult  or  tremendous  pro- 
cesses. There  was  not  a  metal  they  could  not  produce 
with  their  high  temperatures  and  enormous  pressures. 
It  is  true  that  all  other  operations  had  to  be  stopped  in 
order  to  transmute  rapidly  common  materials  into  gold, 
irelium,  or  diamonds;  but  it  could  be  done,  and  they 
had  no  need  to  dig  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  like 
other  men  for  the  more  precious  metals  and  crystals 
which  had  accumulated  there  in  the  volcanic  or  chemi- 
cal past. 

It  was  one  of  their  commonest  sayings  that  no  science 
which  was  not  creative  was  worth}'  of  the  name.  True, 
there  were  often  long  tracts  of  scientific  investigation 
that  seemed  entirely  barren;  and  many  of  their  re- 
searches seemed  to  lead  nowhither.  But  when  I  in- 
quired more  minutely  I  found  that  the  investigators  had 


Rimla  .  109 

realised  many  of  the  practical  applications  of  the  dis- 
cover}- when  once  they  should  reach  it.  They  re- 
garded as  futile  all  abstract  inquiries  which  had  only 
a  distant  and  unforeseen  chance  of  ending  in  some- 
thing useful.  Even  their  astronomy  had  a  keen  eye 
to  the  possibilities  of  their  future;  it  led  not  only  to  a 
deeper  knowledge  of  the  living  heart  of  creation,  and  to 
a  wider  enjoyment  of  the  pleasures  of  imagination  and 
faith,  but  to  the  purposes  of  the  immediate  life;  it  gave 
them  immortal  forms  for  their  art  and  especially  their 
architecture;  it  moulded  or  suggested  their  divinest 
music;  it  brought  into  even  their  physical  life  influences 
unlike  those  of  the  earth,  and  they  hoped  with  full  faith 
that  through  this  they  might  catch  the  wandering 
thoughts  or  voices  of  the  beings  of  other  worlds  and  at 
last  reach  the  power  of  emigration  from  star  to  star. 

Their  most  creative  science  was  chemistry;  for  this 
had  reached  the  secrets  of  nature's  most  mysterious 
processes,  and  had  imitated  and  generally  abbreviated 
the  workings  of  her  great  laboratory.  The  L,imanorans 
did  not  need  to  grow  the  plants  and  trees  that  used 
to  produce  their  food.  Agriculture  had  ceased  to  be 
necessary  for  them  except  as  a  part  of  landscape- 
gardening.  The  elements  and  combinations  that  used 
to  be  extracted  from  their  harvests  in  order  to  support 
and  exhilarate  life  could  be  created  directly  in  the 
chemical  laboratories.  Everything  needed  as  diet  was 
drawn  straight  from  the  earth  without  the  long  pro- 
cess of  growth  and  culination.  They  had  the  prime 
factors  of  sustenance  in  unlimited  quantity  and  purest 
form  with  the  minimum  of  labour,  and  they  could  give 
to  these  the  exact  quality  and  refinement  which  would 
bear  them  straight  to  the  various  tissues  or  cells  of 
the   body  without  the  need  of  its  offensive  chemical 


1 10  Limanora 

processes.  Most  of  the  chemistry  of  life-sustenance 
was  accomplished  before  the  food  entered  the  human 
system,  and  the  space  and  energy  of  the  body  that  had 
before  gone  to  the  alimentary  processes  of  life  were 
now  free  for  other  and  higher  functions.  Pharmacy 
and  chemical  science  combined  to  create  all  that  the 
constitution  required  not  only  for  its  support  and  fric- 
tionless  continuance,  but  for  its  progress  towards  longer 
life  and  more  ethereal  texture.  Their  medicine  had 
ages  before  passed  the  crude  stage  of  mere  cure  of  dis- 
ease. They  laughed  at  the  idea  of  the  science  as 
merely  therapeutic:  it  must  be  creative.  The  inter- 
relations of  the  higher  and  lower  elements  of  the  nature 
were  unremittingly  studied  in  the  case  of  every  mem- 
ber of  the  community,  and  every  means  of  change  in 
them  that  would  lead  to  the  ennobling  of  Ljmauoran 
humanity  was  carefully  prescribed. 

I  was  led  through  their  food  factories  and  grew 
deeply  interested  in  their  processes  of  analysis  and 
combination.  They  seemed  never  to  have  any  hesita- 
tion about  the  exact  quantity  of  each  element  and  the 
exact  temperature  and  pressure  needed  to  produce  any 
given  kind  of  sustenance.  One  of  the  most  singular 
departments  of  these  factories  was  that  in  which  they 
had  yoked  the  infinitesimal  plant  and  animal  life  of  the 
universe  to  the  chemicalisation  of  their  food  and  medi- 
cine. They  knew  how  to  utilise  all  the  life  they  could 
come  across,  however  microscopic,  and  here  under  their 
marvellously  powerful  magnifying  instruments  I  could 
see  the  minutest  of  all  life  enslaved  to  their  purposes. 
Nothing  could  surpass  the  exactitude  with  which  they 
had  defined  the  functions  and  spheres  of  these  mys- 
terious beings  invisible  to  the  naked  eye.  Each  had 
its  own  department  of  industry.     No  one  of  them  inter- 


Rim  la 


1 1 1 


fered  with  the  other.  It  was  life  put  to  its  best  pur- 
pose of  sustaining  the  noblest  life.  When  I  saw  the 
huge  irelium  tubes  bearing  out  the  results  in  aerial  or 
vaporous  form,  I  grew  anxious  to  test  the  effects  at  the 
other  end  of  them.  At  my  own  request  I  was  taken 
one  day  to  Oomalefa,  the  great  series  of  public  halls 
and  baths  which  formed  the  chief  centre  of  associative 
life  in  the  island.  I  had  not  known  of  the  institution 
before;  for  I  was  still  too  little  advanced  in  physical 
nature  to  be  clear  of  the  inner  chemical  processes 
needed  for  nutrition,  and  it  had  not  been  thought 
necessary  to  show  me  a  section  of  their  public  life  in 
which  I  could  have  no  special  share.  But,  now  that 
my  own  eagerness  for  knowledge  had  brought  me  to 
the  stage  of  education  which  demanded  insight  into  this 
institution,  they  were  willing  that  I  should  inspect  it 
and  see  all  its  peculiar  features. 


CHAPTER   IX 

OOMALEFA 

THESE  halls  of  nutrition  and  medication  were  situ- 
ated on  a  great  promontory  extending  miles  into 
the  sea.  It  had  been  ledged  and  bastioned  with  lava 
walls,  and  round  the  gleaming  edifice  ran  a  balcony  or 
rocky  platform,  which  broke  the  fury  of  any  ambitious 
billows  that  might  threaten  the  crystal  translucence  of 
the  walls.  Here,  overlooking  the  sea,  the  Limanoraus 
could  drink  in  its  medicating  breath;  here  in  the  vast 
hall  could  they  take  that  restful  exercise  which  is  the 
first  essential  of  all  life;  here  they  could  commune  with 
their  own  souls  or  with  the  stars  and  listen  to  the  ever- 
changing  rhythm  of  the  waves  as  the}'  broke  into  spray 
or  climbed  to  the  rocky  wall  beneath.  They  considered 
this  chamber  of  the  ocean  and  the  stars  as  more  medi- 
cant  and  alimentary  than  any  they  could  make  with 
human  hands;  hence  it  was  that  they  had  thrown  out 
this  great  projection  into  the  sea,  where  they  could 
spend  most  of  their  hours  of  nutrition. 

Along  its  highest  ridge  ran  a  series  of  the  noblest 
buildings  that  ever  met  my  eye,  unlike  all  other  edifices 
I  had  ever  heard  of  in  style  of  architecture  and  method 
of  grouping,  but  resembling  in  their  bewildering  variety 
and  inherent  symmetry  the  gleaming  clusters  of  night. 

112 


Oomalefa  1 1 3 

Countless  points  of  fire  aimed  at  the  heavens  from 
spires  and  towers  which  shone  with  rainbow  fluctuation 
.in  the  sun.  There  was  a  milky  way  of  jewelled  pin- 
nacles; and  around  were  strewn  fire-flashing  constel- 
lations of  jewel  minarets  and  domes.  Innumerable 
centres  of  varied  roof  and  aspiring  form  led  the  eye  by 
their  incompleteness  to  some  great  centre;  and  soon  it 
rested  calmly  on  the  vast  yet  ever-broken  and  chang- 
ing dome  that  like  a  snow-clad  mountain-ridge  mas- 
tered every  spirit  that  was  drawn  to  it.  Alone  this 
galaxy  of  clustered  starry  forms  stood  out  above  the 
sea,  undwarfed  by  any  neighbouring  land  and  master- 
ful over  the  billows  below  it.  A  true  temple  was  it 
even  in  the  presence  of  the  universe  of  suns  that 
stretched  out  into  endless  night.  Within  it  surely 
might  the  spirit  of  man  feel  no  unholy  doubts  of  its 
immortal  destiny  or  of  its  kinship  with  the  divine. 
Pure  and  noble  orison  might  here  be  raised  to  the 
Maker  of  the  makers  of  this  shrine;  all  trivial  and 
mean  thoughts  would  here  be  sacrilege.  When  night 
fell,  the  stars  in  the  heavens  held  spirit  communion 
with  this  their  brother.  This  was  Oomalefa,  or  the 
jewel  of  immortal  longings. 

My  first  visit  to  Oomalefa  is  engraved  upon  the 
record  of  my  past,  for  it  was  one  of  my  first  expeditious 
under  the  guidance  of  Thyriel.  The  beauty  of  her 
spirit  dawned  upon  me  as  the  day  passed;  afterwards 
I  came  to  see  that  it  was  everything  that  my  own 
needed,  but  at  the  time  I  could  not  reason  out  the 
nature  of  my  feelings.  She  grew  upon  me  as  the  day 
upon  the  night,  and  when  we  parted  it  was  as  if  my 
sun  had  set;  helpless  and  stumbling,  my  spirit  groped 
for  the  guiding  dawn  again;  I  was  forlorn,  reaching 
out  for  my  other  half  in  a  lonely  universe. 


ii4  Limanora 

Her  presence  doubtless  coloured  all  the  scenes 
through  which  I  passed,  yet  they  were  enough  of 
themselves  to  impress  my  mind.  We  alighted  on  the 
mainland  and  made  our  way  out  towards  the  archway 
which  spanned  the  root  of  the  promontory.  The 
weight  of  our  bodies  as  we  stood  upon  a  certain  spot 
swung  up  the  transparent  portcullis,  and  we  found 
ourselves  in  a  spacious  entrance  hall,  its  roof  a  moving 
orrery  of  the  sky  of  night,  its  walls  lit  pictures  of 
the  ocean  around  framed  in  living  sections  of  the  sea 
alive  with  sea-denizens,  its  floor  a  tidal  beach  of  sand, 
soft  yet  firm,  whereon  the  sea  ever  seemed  to  cream 
and  retreat.  It  had  all  the  beauty  and  the  freshness 
of  the  shore  beneath  the  starred  night  when  the  tide  is 
making. 

The  next  chamber  we  entered  was  as  vast,  and  was 
as  many-coloured  as  the  rainbow.  It  was  the  index 
hall;  for  here  were  marked  the  name  and  number  and 
situation  of  every  chamber  in  Oomalefa,  and  under- 
neath each  name  was  shown  in  graphic  experiment  the 
effect  of  the  different  medicated  atmospheres  upon  the 
various  tissues  of  the  human  body.  Complete  repro- 
ductions of  the  bones  and  muscles,  the  flesh  and  blood, 
the  cells  and  nerves  and  coatings  were  here  enclosed 
and  the  transformations  pictured  in  the  transparent 
sections  of  the  walls.  An  expert  from  the  family 
having  the  manufacture  of  each  atmosphere  under  its 
charge  stood  by  and  guided  and  explained  the  process. 
It  was  a  physiological  laboratory,  in  which  every 
Ivimanoran  might  see  with  his  own  eyes  and  hear  ex- 
plained by  one  who  knew,  every  modification  in  the 
tissues  that  a  longer  or  shorter  time  spent  in  any 
chamber  would  produce. 

Twin  with  this  hall  was  that  of  measurement  and 


Oomalefa  115 

consultation.  Here  every  entrant  had  all  his  import- 
ant organs  and  tissues  tested  scientifically,  and  was 
then  told  the  atmospheres  which  would  best  suit  the 
development  of  any  or  all  of  his  parts  and  faculties. 
He  stated  the  chief  purpose  of  his  existence,  and  con- 
sulted the  experts  on  the  directions  that  would  best 
lead  to  it.  He  was  told  of  any  defect  in  his  organic 
functions  and  advised  how  it  could  be  remedied.  After 
this  consultation  he  could  return  to  the  hall  of  experi- 
ment and  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  effect  of  the  various 
atmospheres  upon  the  unseen  portions  of  his  system. 
Then  he  was  permitted  to  enter  the  halls  of  nutrition 
and  medication,  and  choosing  those  which  he  specially 
needed  that  day  spent  the  time  required  in  each.  He 
found  exit  again  by  the  hall  of  measurement,  and  there 
another  testing  revealed  whether  he  had  been  success- 
ful in  his  alimentary  sojourn  in  Oomalefa,  and  whether 
he  would  have  to  remain  longer  or  have  a  certain  at- 
mosphere introduced  into  his  sleeping-chamber  in  his 
own  mansion. 

Every  Umanoran  except  the  young  and  undeveloped 
had  as  the  result  of  attention  to  health  in  past  ages 
what  they  called  the  conscience  of  the  health.  This 
put  them  on  the  alert  the  moment  any  function  was 
disordered,  and  off  they  went  to  Oomalefa  to  consult 
the  medical  families  on  the  exact  nature  of  the  de- 
rangement, its  locality,  and  the  diet  or  treatment  that 
would  restore  to  complete  health.  Few  or  none  of  full 
maturity  but  would  feel  this  sanitary  sense  within 
them  like  a  whip  or  goad  which  would  not  let  them 
rest  till  the  evil  element  was  swept  out.  It  was  a  daily 
occurrence  to  meet  some  islander  hurrying  post-haste 
for  consultation  and  medication,  and  I  came  at  last  to 
be  ashamed  of  the  lethargy  which  would  let  me  remain 


n6  Limanora 

inert  under  some  decay  of  nerve  or  tissue  in  its  primary 
stages  until  it  had  resulted  in  ache  or  pain.  The  feel- 
ing of  lassitude  or  the  absence  of  the  sense  of  the  full 
tide  of  life  made  me  rush  in  fear  and  trembling  to  the 
hall  of  consultation.  In  my  former  existence  I  had 
had  the  embryo  of  this  sanitary  conscience  in  the 
pains  or  prostration  accompanying  disease,  but  then  the 
warning  generally  came  too  late.  Now  I  was  sensitive 
to  the  slightest  derangement  of  any  tissue  or  part  of  my 
system  and  without  the  goad  of  ache  flew  to  Oomalefa 
to  find  the  remedy;  otherwise  I  felt  that  I  was  doing 
wrong  to  my  future  and  my  posterity  and  to  the  future 
of  the  whole  race.  Even  the  actual  present  of  the  peo- 
ple was  affected;  the  slightest  disorder  of  my  constitu- 
tion seemed  to  weigh  upon  the  spirits  of  my  companions 
and  friends,  for  they  believed  there  was  contagion  in 
every  disease.  As  strongly  did  they  hold  that  there 
was  a  contagion  of  health,  and  would  not  allow  any 
member  of  their  medical  families  or  council  to  approach 
a  citizen  even  in  consultation  unless  the  healer  was 
himself  whole  in  every  atom  of  his  constitution.  To  be 
sound  in  body  and  spirit  was  as  sanative  of  the  de- 
rangements of  others  as  any  active  remedy. 

Every  citizen  was  taught  enough  of  the  medical 
science  of  the  island  to  know  what  was  wrong  in  him- 
self or  his  neighbour;  for  ever}'  citizen  was  a  possible 
father  or  mother;  and  for  parenthood  a  thorough  and 
practical  acquaintance  with  the  laws  of  health  and  the 
causes  and  cures  of  the  commonest  diseases  was  a  first 
essential.  The  L,imanoraus  laughed  at  the  absurdity 
of  Western  civilisation  in  allowing  men  and  women  to 
generate  and  bring  up  children  with  no  more  knowledge 
of  their  constitution  than  if  they  were  mere  animals. 
Still  oftener  they  mourned  that  so  much  human  gen- 


Oomalefa  117 

eration  in  the  world  was  left  to  the  chance  dictates  of 
caprice,  and  that  most  medicine  and  education  were 
only  blind  groping  in  the  dark.  That  nothing  should 
be  done  on  mere  authority  was  one  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  their  civilisation. 

The  medical  councillor  knew  that  he  had  a  keen 
critic  in  every  citizen;  and  he  had  to  justify  and  make 
clear  every  process  he  recommended,  in  order  that 
faith  in  him  might  remain  clear.  His  sole  advantage 
was  his  fuller  and  deeper  knowledge  and  the  faculty  he 
had  acquired  from  long  familiarity  with  the  questions 
and  problems  he  had  to  deal  with.  Each  member  of 
the  medical  families  and  council  had  a  special  section 
of  the  human  system  to  explore,  besides  having  a 
mastery  of  the  whole.  It  was  this  division  of  labour 
that  caused  their  science  of  the  human  tissues  to  ad- 
vance so  swiftly.     Not  a  moment  of  their  work  was  lost. 

I  had  thought  at  first  that  a  people  so  healthy  and 
vigorous  and  devoted  to  such  wholesome  ways  of  life 
had  no  need  of  medical  science;  but  I  soon  saw  that 
their  general  sanativeness  demanded  a  more  advanced 
science  and  art  than  the  rude  quackery  of  Western 
medicine.  All  the  worst  diseases  of  maturity  in 
Europe,  fevers,  consumption,  diphtheria,  rheumatism, 
indigestion,  and  the  rest,  were  relegated  in  Limanora 
to  childhood,  and  were  then  as  mild  and  innocuous  as 
scarlatina  or  measles  or  whooping-cough;  they  had  be- 
come the  enemies  of  unformed  tissues,  and  found  little 
to  batten  upon  even  in  them.  Generally  they  were 
checked  in  their  first  stage  by  the  medical  knowledge 
of  the  parents  or  proparents,  and  it  was  the  rarest  oc- 
currence to  have  to  resort  to  the  deeper  knowledge  of 
the  medical  council,  rarest  of  all  where  childhood  was 
concerned. 


u8  Limanora 

I  rushed  to  the  conclusion  that  the  medical  families 
would  have  nothing  to  investigate  but  the  development 
of  the  tissues  and  organs  and  faculties  as  they  existed 
in  Limanora;  but  I  was  disabused  of  this  idea  by  the 
occurrence  of  an  epidemic  in  the  island  not  long  after 
I  arrived  there.  It  took  the  form  of  dream-disturbed 
sleep,  which  held  the  faculties  in  its  grasp  beyond  the 
usual  number  of  hours  of  rest.  The  patients  tossed 
and  moaned  and  imagined  horrors  of  the  past  of  hu- 
manity and  animalhood  as  still  occurring  in  their  lives. 
It  abridged  the  hours  of  consciousness,  and  left  the 
sufferers  spent  and  unexhilarated.  It  was  no  fever, 
but  only  a  languor  that  attacked  the  imaginative  facul- 
ties and  made  them  morbid  and  secretive  in  their  activi- 
ties. My  brain-tissues  were  perhaps  not  fine  enough 
to  be  attacked  by  it,  and  I  escaped;  but  I  was  greatly 
distressed  to  find  that  Thyriel  had  been  touched  by  the 
epidemic.  My  anxiety  led  me  to  know  all  that  the 
specialists  discovered  concerning  it.  It  could  not  be 
fatal,  they  assured  me;  for  no  epidemic  had  been  fatal 
to  Limanorans  for  many  centuries.  It  only  meant  the 
loss  of  a  valuable  portion  of  the  time  of  working.  In 
the  other  islands,  the  winged  scouts  brought  the  news, 
it  had  swept  half  the  populations  into  the  grave;  but 
so  vigorous  and  healthy  were  the  various  tissues  of  our 
people  that  no  disease  could  produce  anything  but  a 
temporary  derangement. 

By  means  of  their  skilful  surgery  they  soon  isolated 
under  the  microscope  some  specimens  of  the  living 
organisms  that  produced  the  disease;  they  experi- 
mented with  all  the  elements  and  their  combinations 
and  saw  what  encouraged  them,  what  attenuated  them, 
and  what  killed  them.  It  was  not  long  before  every 
trace  of  the  microscopic  creature  had   vanished  from 


Oomalefa  119 

the  island;  there  remained  only  the  knowledge  and  the 
antidote  that  would  enable  their  outposts  or  messengers 
through  the  sky  to  resist  its  attacks,  should  they  ever 
encounter  it  again.  Limanorans  who  were  sent  on 
missions  out  of  the  country  had  to  be  made  epidemic- 
proof  by  inoculation  against  known  diseases  before  set- 
ting out.  But  it  sometimes  happened,  especially  to 
scouts  into  the  higher  regions  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
earth's  atmosphere,  that  they  brought  back  with  them 
symptoms  that  were  new,  and  a  new  disease  and  a  new 
microbe  had  to  be  added  to  their  medical  lists.  It  was 
explained  to  me  that  our  solar  system  was  travelling 
every  moment  of  its  existence  into  new  regions  of 
space;  and  as  it  moved  it  passed  from  time  to  time 
through  swarms  of  minute  and  attenuated  life  which 
had  been  left  myriads  of  ages  before  in  its  tracks  by 
some  diseased  member  of  another  system.  This  micro- 
scopic life  was  in  its  own  special  way  immortal,  and 
could  subsist  on  the  scattered  material  life  that  floated 
though  the  ether  unclaimed  by  any  planetary  centre. 
It  was  out  of  such  waifs  of  life  peopling  space  that  a 
new  world  made  a  new  beginning  in  vital  history;  as 
soon  as  it  cooled  down  sufficiently,  after  creative  col- 
lision and  separation,  to  allow  of  individual  existence 
upon  it,  myriads  of  these  microscopic  inhabitants  of 
space  took  possession  of  it,  and  began  again  the  strug- 
gle of  life  which  was  the  universal  law  of  infinity,  and 
meant  the  ascension  of  all  energy  through  higher  and 
higher  circles. 

Disease  was  but  a  form  of  this  eternal  struggle  for 
existence;  it  was  the  attempt  of  invisible  lower  forms 
to  master  the  higher  human  tissues  and  make  them 
their  feeding-ground.  The  original  enemies  of  man, 
the  wild  beasts,  were  subdued  or  tamed  or  driven  forth 


t2o  Limanora 

into  the  deserts  as  soon  as  savage  life  was  passed. 
Then  began  the  fiercer  contest  for  the  possession  of  his 
own  cells  and  tissues  and  organs.  Enemies  that  he 
could  not  see  migrated  out  of  the  surrounding  elements 
into  his  system  as  soon  as  it  became  delicate  enough  to 
stir  their  appetite,  and  for  ages  there  were  no  weapons 
against  them;  chance  now  and  again  offered  one;  but 
generally  he  groped  about  in  his  frantic  ignorance  for 
anything  that  would  ease  the  pain  from  these  gnawing 
foes  within  him.  Out  of  this  rose  by  slow  steps  a  kind 
of  quackery  they  called  the  science  of  medicine;  but 
the  conflict  still  remained  unequal;  the  invisible  ene- 
mies had  the  best  of  it,  and  they  were  ever  being  re- 
cruited by  new  enemies  out  of  space,  which  bred  new 
and  more  appalling  plagues.  Not  till  it  was  found  that 
the  newer  these  settlers  were  the  more  virulent  were 
their  ravages  was  there  any  chance  of  a  real  science 
of  medicine  arising  from  this  everlasting  agonism. 

The  first  beginnings  of  a  true  science  appeared  in  the 
attempts  to  deplete  the  soil  by  setting  tamed  and  ex- 
hausted specimens  of  their  foes  to  feed  on  it.  A  soil 
once  reft  of  the  elements  that  invited  and  fitted  any 
disease  germs  seldom  suffered  in  any  serious  degree 
from  them  again.  Soon  by  their  new  electro-micro- 
scopes or  clirolans  they  were  able  to  classify  the  in- 
finitely minute  foods  of  these  infinitely  minute  pasturers 
on  the  human  tissue.  Their  microscopes,  enormously 
though  they  had  added  to  the  power  of  human  vision 
into  the  atomic  world,  had  been  unable  to  advance  be- 
yond the  discovery  and  complete  classification  of  the 
invisible  organisms.  Their  clirolans  combined  pho- 
tography with  electro-microscopy  in  such  a  way  that 
every  change  in  the  systems  of  their  minute  foes  was 
recorded ;  they  were  able  to  see  the  elements  taken  from 


Oomalefa  121 

the  human  system  absorbed  and  sifted  of  their  nutri- 
tive powers,  and  the  debris  or  manure  ejected  and  left 
to  poison  the  human  tissues;  it  was  not  the  presence  of 
the  organisms  themselves,  or  even  their  destruction  of 
essential  elements  that  generally  produced  the  disease, 
but  the  accumulation  of  the  exhausted  excreta,  clog- 
ging the  various  functions.  At  first  medical  science 
satisfied  itself  with  cultivating  feeble  and  underbred 
germs,  and  turning  them  loose  on  the  human  body  in 
order  to  make  them  exhaust  the  elements  which  at- 
tracted their  kin.  Next  they  discovered  the  chemical 
combination  that,  introduced  into  the  body,  would  neu- 
tralise the  poisonous  qualities  of  the  bacterial  debris. 
L,ast  of  all  by  their  vimolans  or  photo  electric  analysers 
they  found  the  exact  food  which  attracted  each  form  of 
microbe  to  the  tissue  and  nourished  them  there;  and 
they  experimented  electro-chemically  till  they  knew 
the  element  that,  combining  with  this  bacterial  food, 
would  neutralise  its  attraction  and  yet  leave  the  body 
as  efficient  and  healthy  as  before;  in  short,  they  could 
prescribe  the  antidote  to  every  disease  that  had  ever 
enfeebled  any  portion  of  their  system.  Diseases  were 
nothing  else  than  the  infinitesimal  life  of  space  fixing 
itself,  after  an  eternity  of  detachment  and  attenuation, 
upon  a  living  soil  fat  with  the  elements  of  attraction 
and  nourishment  and  yet  too  feeble  to  hold  out  against 
its  ravages.  They  drew  an  analogy  from  their  old 
agriculture;  weeds  were  nothing  but  plants  finding  at 
last  the  conditions  which  would  give  them  the  victor}' 
in  the  struggle  for  existence  and  would  enable  them  to 
grow  so  rapidly  and  luxuriantly  as  to  choke  all  neigh- 
bours; and  their  old  science  of  earth  culture  set  them 
on  the  way  to  a  true  medical  science.  They  had 
watched  with  their  clirolans  the  selective  processes  of 


i22  Limanora 

the  roots  of  each  weed,  and  by  various  analysers  had 
found  the  combination  of  elements  in  the  soil  and  air 
by  which  it  overcame  its  rivals;  they  then  discovered 
the  special  component  which,  uniting  with  its  food, 
would  deprive  the  weed  of  its  nutritive  powers.  Thus 
were  they  able  to  encourage  or  discourage  on  any  soil 
any  growth  they  might  select.  But  agriculture  had 
been  completely  superseded  by  their  later  chemistry. 
The  best  thing  it  had  left  to  their  civilisation  was  the 
cue  it  gave  by  analogy  to  their  true  science  of  thera- 
peutics. 

How  minute  and  detailed  was  their  study  of  the  in- 
finitesimal life  of  the  universe,  I  could  not  have 
imagined  without  having  seen  it  in  practice.  They 
had  advanced  so  far  with  their  clirolans  and  vimolans 
that  they  were  now  discovering  a  still  more  infinitesi- 
mal world  which  was  parasitic  on  microscopic  life. 
There  had  been  elements  and  effects  at  times  discover- 
able in  their  therapeutic  problems  that  disturbed  the 
certainty  of  their  conclusions  and  solutions.  Again 
and  again  their  foresights  had  been  mistaken,  their 
calculations  thrown  out.  Most  often  was  this  the  case 
on  the  border-land  of  the  moral  world.  They  had 
known  in  their  own  far  past  history,  and  in  the  more 
recent  history  of  the  other  islands  of  the  archipelago, 
the  demoralising  effect  of  epidemics  and  plagues,  especi- 
ally of  a  new  and  vigorous  type.  For  a  time  the  people 
who  came  within  the  influence  of  the  disease  seemed  to 
return  almost  to  savagery.  And  yet  every  plague 
differed  slightly  from  every  other  in  its  moral  results. 
One  made  the  whole  population  thieves;  another  made 
them  liars;  a  third  stirred  up  a  fury  of  lust;  a  fourth 
delivered  over  the  soul  to  despair  of  life,  and  a  fifth  to 
disloyalty  and  intrigue.     When  once  their  attention 


Oomalefa  123 

was  called  to  this  widespread  demoralisation  after  an 
epidemic,  they  began  to  watch  the  effect  of  individual 
illnesses  on  the  mind;  and  in  every  case  there  were  re- 
sults, emotional,  moral,  or  intellectual,  that  were  not  to 
be  accounted  for  by  mere  weakness  of  the  body  or  irri- 
tation of  the  nerves,  or  by  the  poisonous  debris  that 
the  minute  organisms  threw  off. 

They  invented  still  more  powerful  clirolaus,  which 
revealed  an  intensity  of  life  they  had  not  imagined. 
The  disease  germs  brought  into  the  human  system  still 
more  minute  parasites  that  at  once  attacked  the  brain 
and  the  nerve-centres.  In  one  disease  these  invisible 
vermin  preferred  one  set  of  brain-cells,  in  another  they 
preferred  another.  The  therapeutic  families  engaged 
in  the  investigations  were  only  just  coming  to  classify 
these  moral  and  intellectual  parasites  of  the  disease 
germs.  Nor  had  they  yet  been  able  to  discover  any 
cure  for  these  but  the  sympathetic  proximity  of  strong 
and  noble  minds.  The  look  from  the  eyes  of  some  of 
their  greatest  doctors,  even  the  touch  of  their  hands, 
seemed  to  drive  the  living  evil  forth,  or  at  least  to  at- 
tenuate and  enfeeble  it.  The  mind  of  the  patient  rose 
triumphant  in  the  presence  of  one  of  these  wise  and 
healing  personalities.  It  had  been  for  ages  the  tradi- 
tional maxim  of  polity  that  only  the  loftiest  and  most 
advanced,  as  well  as  most  sympathetic  natures  should 
be  allowed  to  specialise  for  the  medical  castes,  or  marry 
into  the  medical  families.  None  were  allowed  to  nurse 
the  sick  but  the  beautiful  souls  of  the  community; 
their  mere  presence  seemed  to  strengthen  the  fainting 
heart  in  the  struggle  for  life.  As  the  mind  grew  strong, 
the  ravages  of  the  disease  lessened.  For  now  with 
their  more  powerful  clirolans  they  found  that,  as  the 
brain  or  nerve-centres  acquired  strength,  the  parasitic, 


124  Limanora 

invisible  life  took  its  way  back  to  its  original  hosts  and 
preyed  on  them.  It  was  indeed  one  of  the  maxims  of 
their  community  to  keep  the  system  of  every  individual 
at  its  highest  point  of  vitality.  A  loss  of  exhilaration 
in  any  citizen  was  marked  at  once  by  his  neighbours, 
just  like  a  lapse  into  criminality  in  Western  civilisation. 
It  was  the  symptom  of  possible  disease  with  all  its 
power  of  contagion.  The  sense  of  active  vitalisation 
(what  we  call  the  spirits)  was "  the  barometer  of  the 
sanitary,  moral,  and  intellectual  atmosphere,  and 
ever)'  Limanoran  was  keenly  sensitive  to  all  its 
changes. 

In  Oomalefa  it  was  impossible  to  conceal  the  source 
of  the  degeneration.  The  specialised  families  of  the 
medical  council  knew  where  to  apply  their  investiga- 
tory instruments.  Even  with  their  own  eyes  and  ears 
and  electric  sense  they  could  often  detect  the  exact 
nesting-place  of  the  intrusive  microbes;  for  though  to 
my  muddy  senses  their  bodies  were  as  opaque  as  my 
own,  except  for  a  certain  pellucid  light  which  illumi- 
nated the  skin  and  made  the  complexion  so  beautiful, 
the  processes  of  life  seemed  an  open  book  to  their  acute 
observation.  Their  hearing  could  detect  any  change 
in  the  normal  beat  of  the  heart  and  even  the  passage  of 
the  blood  in  the  veins,  which,  Thyriel  has  told  me, 
sounded  like  the  liquid  rhythm  of  mountain-rills. 
Their  eyes  could  see  through  the  skin  the  delicate 
veinings  underneath  and  detect  every  nervous  or  mus- 
cular effort.  Their  magnetic  sense  could  tell  them 
whether  thought  or  emotion  was  developing  in  the 
centres  or  passing  along  the  nerves.  The  very  casing 
of  the  brain  seemed  to  them  to  be  semi-transparent,  and 
they  were  conscious,  though  dimly,  of  the  movements 
of  even  the  finer  tissues,  non-existent  to  my  senses  ex- 


Oomalefa  125 

cept  under  the  microscope.  Hence  it  was  that  each 
Lirnanoran  had  an  isolated  dwelling-place  for  himself. 
It  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  find  rest 
or  sleep  close  to  the  living  and  unresting  functions 
of  another  human  system;  and  it  was  only  the 
rhythm  of  the  movements  and  sounds  of  all  the  organs 
and  processes  which  made  proximity  to  one  another 
tolerable.  I  have  often  seen  Thyriel  in  raptures 
over  the  noble  harmony  of  a  healthy  and  virtuous 
personality;  to  her  ear  the  pulsations  and  other 
sounds  were  like  a  majestic  piece  of  music;  to  her 
eye  the  rush  and  hurry  of  the  vital  processes  were 
not  unlike  the  motions  of  the  starry  system  of  night; 
whilst  the  exhilaration  through  the  electric  sense 
from  the  speeding  thoughts  and  emotions  of  a  sound 
mind  in  a  sound  body  was  at  times  ecstatic.  The 
nobler  the  soul  that  she  was  conscious  of  in  her 
neighbour,  the  keener  was  her  enjoyment  of  proximity. 
It  was  this  that  made  only  the  purest  and  greatest 
minds  in  the  healthiest  bodies  admissible  to  the  medical 
families  or  council.  There  was  a  curative  power  in 
their  very  presence. 

With  their  clirolans  and  vimolans  and  other  aids  to 
the  senses  the  medical  sages  could  detect  the  slightest 
jar  in  the  rhythm  of  the  system  and  locate  it  with  the 
greatest  ease.  Having  located  it,  they  knew  the  para- 
site that  had  begun  to  multiply  and  clog  the  organ  or 
tissue  or  function,  and  the  treatment  that  it  required. 
Every  moral  fault  had  its  corresponding  disease  and 
infinitesimal  parasite  they  held;  and  so  rapidly  could 
the  minute  organisms  increase  and  so  impalpably  and 
easily  could  they  migrate  from  human  being  to  human 
being  that  the  contagion  of  vice  was  a  thousand  times 
more  appalling  in  its  ravages  than  that  of  mere  physi- 


1 26  Limanora 

cal  disease.  There  was  great  trepidation  when  any 
ailment  attacked  the  body  of  a  Limanoran,  and  he  was 
heartily  ashamed  of  its  appearance  and  alarmed  lest  it 
should  spread,  or  lead  to  its  natural  consequence,  moral 
degeneracy;  but,  if  the  parasitic  attack  was  found  to  be 
on  one  of  the  higher  centres  of  life,  the  alarm  was  great 
and  wide,  for  it  was  far  more  subtle  in  its  insidiousness 
and  omnipotence.  The  patient  was  at  once  quaran- 
tined and  only  the  noblest  of  medical  sages  could  break 
his  isolation.  All  the  powers  of  his  mind  and  of  the 
minds  of  his  nurses  and  medical  attendants  were  con- 
centrated on  the  offending  tissue,  and  strong  thermo- 
electric aids  were  applied  to  it,  so  that  it  should  soon 
regain  its  old  vitality  and  drive  the  intruders  out.  In 
the  chamber  was  kept  up  an  atmosphere  of  the  special 
elements  which  would  nourish  the  degenerate  cells  and 
also  of  those  that  would  destroy  the  microbes;  only  as 
a  last  resort  was  surgery  used  and  the  part  laid  open  to 
the  local  application  of  re-agents  against  the  hostile 
organisms.  The  ruder  and  older  forms  of  evil — passion, 
envy,  malice,  hatred,  jealousy,  contempt,  vanity  — 
rarely  appeared  in  grown  men  and  women  at  that  ad- 
vanced stage  of  their  civilisation.  They  had  become 
diseases  of  the  immature  periods  of  life,  when  the  soul 
was  passing  through  the  primitive  phases  of  the  devel- 
opment of  mankind.  They  were  the  ailments  of  child- 
hood and  youth;  and  hundreds  of  the  L,imanorans  now 
grew  up  without  once  experiencing  any  one  of  them. 
When  they  did  appear,  isolation  was  the  first  step;  and 
the  parents  or  proparents  could  generally  cope  with  the 
moral  disease  without  having  recourse  to  a  medical 
family  or  to  Oomalefa.  Every  traditional  method  of 
cure  was  applied  most  vigorously,  for  they  shrank  from 
the  thought  of  leaving  any  seed  of  the  contagion  in 


Oomalefa  127 

the  system  to  germinate  at  some  later  and  more  danger- 
ous period  of  life. 

When  the  home  circle  was  unable  to  detect  the  exact 
character  of  the  disturbing  influence,  the  young  patient 
was  brought  under  the  gaze  and  the  tests  of  the  medi- 
cal families.  If  their  clirolans  and  vimolans  failed  to 
identify  the  parasitic  evil,  they  tried  their  magnetome- 
ters, which  were  so  delicate  as  to  indicate  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  mental  or  moral  disorder.  By  means  of 
another  magnetic  instrument  they  were  able  to  ex- 
tract portions  of  the  microbic  debris,  and  then  with 
their  photo-electric  analysers  or  vimolans  they  sepa- 
rated its  various  elements  and  saw  what  moral  evils 
had  entered  into  the  system.  They  had  the  physical 
equivalents  and  results  of  every  form  of  guilt  and 
crime,  and  thus  in  its  very  inception  a  moral  taint 
could  be  detected  and  cured  before  it  had  time  to  ap- 
pear in  the  words  or  conduct  of  the  patient.  Most 
often  this  taint  was  due  to  some  ancestral  weakness  of 
tissue  inviting  the  swarms  of  parasitic  microbes  through 
which  the  earth  is  for  ever  passing.  On  the  first  signs 
of  lowering  vitality  the  pedigree  of  the  patient  was 
consulted  for  the  record  of  the  retrogressive  tendencies 
of  his  forefathers,  and  not  till  the  possibilities  of  atavism 
were  exhausted  were  the  other  tests  resorted  to. 

It  was  on  the  basis  of  these  two  coincident  causes, 
degeneration  of  tissue  and  microbic  life  in  the  atmo- 
sphere, that  they  were  able  to  explain  the  strange 
contemporaneity  of  revolutions,  panics,  wars,  religious 
revivals,  and  widespread  outbreaks  of  crime  or  im- 
morality in  various  parts  of  the  earth.  The  planetary 
system  as  it  sweeps  through  space  cannot  help  passing 
through  vast  oceans  of  living  microscopic  matter  which 
have  drifted  from  other  universes  geological  ages  before 


128  Limanora 

in  their  unresting  migration  from  infinity  to  infinity, 
and  which  lead  a  feeble  death-in-life  till  they  meet  with 
fit  atmospheres,  such  as  will  make  them  strong  and 
teeming.  For  new-born  worlds,  just  ready  for  the 
settlement  of  life  upon  them,  this  is  a  blessing;  but 
for  those  having  upon  them  highly  developed  organised 
life  it  is  too  often  a  curse.  Every  nation  or  tribe  where 
civilisation  has  become  enfeebled  by  luxury  or  immoral 
systems  of  polity  or  domestic  manners  becomes  the 
prey  of  the  new  swarm,  which  multiplies  and  spreads 
itself  on  a  fat  and  unexhausted  soil  with  the  swiftness  of 
a  long  unsated  appetite.  The  people  rise  in  epidemic 
furj',  and  every  institution  suffers  from  the  madness. 
In  different  ages  the  frenzy  takes  different  forms,  but 
there  is  a  striking  simultaneity  in  these  outbreaks  all 
over  history;  and  only  this  intrusion  of  cosmic  infinites- 
imal life  on  the  weakened  higher  centres  of  the  human 
system  can  explain  it  fully.  None  but  the  peoples  who 
have  ordered  their  existence  on  the  moral  laws  of  the 
universe  and  thus  kept  the  tissues  strong,  solid,  and 
unyielding  can  resist  the  plague-like  mania.  The  result 
of  these  epidemics  was  in  the  end,  they  held,  a  benefit 
to  humanity;  for  they  swept  away  most  of  the  tainted 
life  from  the  earth  and  left  the  healthier  constitutions 
able  for  another  advance  in  intellectual  power  or  in 
moralit}7.  The  Limanoran  medicists  were  ever  testing 
and  analysing  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth  for  these  in- 
trusive emigrants  from  other  worlds;  vigorous  and 
healthy  though  their  systems  were,  some  chance  minute 
stranger  might  find  a  lodgment  in  them,  and  cause 
much  derangement  before  he  could  be  got  rid  of. 
Ethics,  psychology,  history,  and  ethnology  were  as 
important  to  their  medical  investigations  as  physiology, 
anatoni}',  and  chemistry. 


Oomalefa  129 

With  all  this  extension  of  medicine  into  regions  that 
seemed  to  me,  a  man  of  Western  civilisation,  the  most 
remote  from  it,  there  had  been  a  gradual  contraction 
of  the  sphere  of  surgery.  The  hacking  and  hewing  of 
the  human  frame  to  get  rid  of  some  intrusive  organism 
seemed  to  them  as  barbarous  as  the  butchering  of  ani- 
mals for  food.  Brilliant  operations  they  thought  the 
confession  of  failure  in  previsional  and  preventive  medi- 
cine. They  would  have  considered  it  a  disaster,  if  not 
a  crime,  to  let  any  disease  proceed  so  far  unobserved  as 
to  need  the  excision  of  the  part  affected.  Even  when, 
by  an  accident,  a  bone  was  fractured,  the}-  could  light 
up  the  whole  sphere  of  the  accident  and  see  exactly 
how  to  get  the  sections  or  fragments  to  meet  again. 
Then,  keeping  the  limb  or  organ  at  rest,  they  concen- 
trated all  the  energy  of  the  patient's  body  and  mind 
and  the  curative  influence  of  their  own  presence  upon 
it.  They  sent  the  nutritive  powers  of  circulation  and 
nerve-energy  into  it  by  application  of  their  various 
electric  instruments,  some  of  which  combined  the  effect 
of  exercise  and  the  effect  of  heat.  In  a  few  days, 
sometimes  in  a  few  hours,  the  junction  was  complete, 
and  only  rest  and  a  medicated  and  nutritive  atmo- 
sphere were  needed  to  make  the  tissue  as  sound  as 
before. 

One  of  their  newest  instruments  and  the  most 
effective  for  the  avoidance  of  surgical  operations  was 
the  alclirolan,  a  combination  of  microscope,  camera  in 
vacuo,  and  electric  power.  It  could  by  means  of  a 
swiftly  moving  film,  on  which  fell  electric  light  through 
a  vacuum,  take  a  picture  of  the  life-processes  within 
the  living  bod}7,  however  minute.  Then  by  means  of 
magnifiers  and  brilliant  light  they  could  throw  from 
this  film  a  moving  picture  on  a  screen,  so  enormously 


130  Limanora 

enlarging  the  process  of  any  part  of  the  body  that  even 
a  novice  could  see  at  a  glance  what  was  healthy  and 
what  was  diseased  or  obstructed.  It  was  this  alclirolan 
that  made  the  study  of  physiology  in  the  living  body 
simple  enough  for  the  very  youngest.  It  was  by  this 
that  they  were  able  to  supplement  the  experimental 
hall  at  the  entrance  to  Oomalefa,  and  to  show  in  pro- 
cess the  effect  in  actual  human  bodies  of  disease, 
microbes,  and  remedies.  Every  minute  process  of  the 
various  organs  and  tissues  of  the  body  and  of  the  brain 
was  reproduced  marvellously  magnified  on  the  walls. 
There  was  no  new  medicine  but  was  tested  and  had  its 
effects  on  the  various  parts  of  the  body  revealed  by  this 
new  method.  There  was  no  new  disease  or  microbe 
but  gave  up  its  secrets  to  this  instrument. 

The  only  surgery  the)'  had  was  creative,  like  all  their 
other  sciences  and  arts.  It  had  to  do  chiefly  with  the 
capacity  of  the  skull.  The  appearance  of  epilepsy  in 
some  of  their  ablest  men  and  families  ages  before  had 
pointed  the  way.  Their  knowledge  of  the  localities 
and  tissues  of  the  brain,  along  with  the  semi-trans- 
parency of  their  skulls  and  the  advantages  their  alcli- 
rolan had  introduced,  gave  them  complete  command  of 
everything  that  was  proceeding  within  the  head.  They 
could  by  their  electric  apparatus  light  up  the  tissues 
and  see  what  part  was  growing  and  pressing  upon  the 
containing  bone.  They  therefore  learned  to  trephine 
the  epileptic  sufferers  and  thus  relieve  the  oppressed 
localit)7  of  the  brain.  From  this  practice  and  the  grow- 
ing knowledge  of  the  great  purpose  of  life  they  passed 
into  the  stage  of  creative  surgery.  For  imperfect  tissue 
perfect  was  substituted.  Man-grafting  had  become  the 
most  important  branch  of  surgery.  The}'  could  modify 
and  even  create  new  faculty  or  organ  or  tissue  by  graft- 


Oomalefa  131 

ing  what  they  had  made  on  to  the  part  of  the  infantile 
system  which  needed  it.  A  child  to  be  devoted  to  a 
special  pursuit  which  needed  some  faculty  exceptionally 
developed  had  his  skull  enlarged  in  its  early  and  plastic 
stage  over  the  portion  of  the  brain  that  was  the  material 
equivalent  and  instrument  of  the  faculty;  and  when 
most  of  the  energies  of  life  began  to  pour  into  his  pur- 
suit the  tissue  had  room  to  grow.  If  a  combination  of 
exceptional  faculties  were  needed  in  any  profession  or 
pursuit,  protuberances  in  various  parts  under  the  hair 
or  even  on  the  brow  could  be  perceived  on  looking 
closely.  So  nice  had  this  creative  art  become  that  the 
most  delicate  and  minute  trephining  could  be  accom- 
plished without  the  patient  knowing  much  about  it; 
the  operation  was  generally  finished  and  the  wound 
healed  whilst  he  slept.  Their  bodies  had  great  re- 
cuperative powers,  and  the  means  applied  were 
wonderful  in  their  rapidity  of  working.  The  hand  of 
the  operator,  too,  manipulated  the  part  under  a  huge 
microscope  that  magnified  the  tissues  ten  thousand-fold. 
In  fact  they  had  all  kinds  of  modifications  of  the  micro- 
scope that  would  fit  even  internal  investigations;  one 
reflected  the  part  in  the  manner  of  the  reflecting  tele- 
scope, and  turned  microscopes  of  great  power  on  the 
reflected  image.  They  had  surgical  modifications  of 
their  clirolans  and  vimolans  so  that  they  could  examine 
permanent  moving  pictures  or  analyses  of  the  tissues 
to  be  investigated.  Nothing  could  escape  their  methods 
of  finding  out  defects  in  the  human  system.  However 
deep  the  organ  or  tissue  to  be  examined  might  be  in 
the  body,  it  flashed  out  its  forms  and  processes  upon 
their  irelium  sheets  as  they  moved.  By  moving  these 
photographic  records  rapidly  underneath  their  micro- 
scopes  the   physiological   processes   of  life    could    be 


i  ;2 


Limanora 


reproduced  and  examined;  stationary,  each  moment  of 
the  processes  could  be  slowly  investigated.  Their 
photo-electric  instruments  could  light  up  and  make 
transparent  any  stratum  of  tissue  desired,  whilst  keep- 
ing the  rest  in  shadow  or  dark  outline. 


CHAPTER   X 


THE   FIRLA,    OR   ELECTRIC  SENSE 


THEIR  physiology  had  no  longer  any  need  of 
anatomy  or  vivisection  as  its  foundation  and 
starting-point.  Besides  the  alclirolans,  they  had  their 
mirlans  or  life-lamps,  as  they  called  them;  and  these 
enabled  them  to  watch  any  process  of  the  human  body 
and  see  how  it  changed  under  the  treatment  they  ap- 
plied. These  life-lamps  appealed  not  onl}-  to  their 
e3*es  and  ears,  but  to  their  electric  sense.  They  iso- 
lated the  magnetic  force  as  well  as  the  sounds  and  ap- 
pearance of  any  section  of  tissue,  and  took  graphic  and 
permanent  record  of  it,  as  they  did  of  the  changes  in 
form  or  texture  or  sound.  Every  kind  of  tissue  in  any 
organ  or  limb  had  its  normal  magnetic  equivalent 
measured  in  terms  of  the  personal  equation  of  force  and 
beat  of  the  heart.  The  slightest  deviation  from  this  at 
anj'  time  of  the  day  or  month  would  at  once  challenge 
attention  and  lead  to  microscopic  investigation.  The)' 
enlarged  the  electrograph,  the  phonograph,  and  the 
photograph  of  the  point  indicated  and  were  thus  able 
to  examine  under  the  sarifolan  even-  infinitesimal  atom 
of  it  in  all  the  aspects  which  appealed  to  their  sight, 
hearing,  and  electric  sense.  Their  sarifolan  magnified 
and    interpreted    for    these    investigative   senses  the 

133 


134  Limanora 

graphic  record  of  their  mirlans,  as  the  microscope  mag- 
nifies for  the  sight.  I  could  see  and  hear  the  move- 
ments and  processes  in  the  tissue,  but  the  electric 
effect  was  to  me  as  general  as  a  shock  from  a  galvanic 
battery;  I  could  not  detect  anything  definite  or  measur- 
able. But  the  Limanorans,  though  they  had  something 
of  our  diffusion  of  electric  sense,  had  also  in  the  back 
of  their  necks  a  localised  sense  that  responded  to  the 
faintest  magnetic  influence  and  measured  roughly  its 
amount  and  its  changes  in  kind  and  degree.  The 
delicate  nerve-centre  there,  which  might  have  been  the 
remains  of  a  backward-looking  eye,  had  developed  with 
them  into  a  most  sensitive  collector  of  electric  vibration 
in  the  air  or  in  any  section  of  matter;  and  in  every 
atom,  whether  organic  or  inorganic,  they  declared 
there  was  ever  some  electric  wave  motion;  in  some  it 
was  too  faint  to  affect  their  firla  or  electric  sense,  but 
then  their  delicate  instruments  for  magnifying  it,  like 
their  mirlans,  made  it  manifest  to  their  senses  and  de- 
finable. It  was  to  my  general  feeling  of  magnetism 
what  the  muscular  sense  in  my  fingers  was  to  my 
diffused  sense  of  touch.  It  had  taken  many  generations 
to  develop,  and  in  their  children  it  never  appeared  till 
they  had  reached  the  close  of  youth;  but  part  of  their 
education  was  directed  towards  making  it  more  sensi- 
tive and  useful  as  a  power  for  measuring  force.  A 
former  generation  of  their  medical  investigators  had 
long  noticed  and  studied  the  effect  of  the  concentration 
of  will-power  through  the  eye  upon  the  back  of  the 
neck  of  one  who  sat  in  front  of  them;  although  the 
patient  could  tell  nothing  by  means  of  his  five  senses 
of  such  an  effort  being  made  behind  him,  he  generally 
turned  round.  Experiment  after  experiment  proved 
that  there  was  a  force  communicated  through  the  inter- 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       135 

veiling  space  to  some  sensitive  spot  on  the  back  of  the 
head  or  neck,  and  they  knew  that  relics  existed  of  what 
seemed  once  to  have  been  an  eye  in  that  region.  They 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  must  have  a  closer 
connection  with  the  higher  brain-centres  than  any  part 
of  the  body  except  the  eye,  and  bent  their  whole  atten- 
tion upon  its  nature.  They  soon  defined  it  as  a  local- 
ised electric  sense  and  by  practice  made  it  as  keen  at 
least  as  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  fingers.  They  were 
at  last  able  to  define  the  direction  of  an  electric  in- 
fluence and  to  note  its  changes  of  force,  and,  after 
several  generations,  their  firla,  as  they  called  it,  came 
to  rank  next  to  sight  and  equal  to  hearing  in  the 
analysis  and  investigation  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
universe. 

Corresponding  to  this  electro-receptive  sense,  they 
had  also  cultivated  the  magnetic  force  of  the  eye. 
They  had  long  known  and  investigated  the  exact  re- 
lationship of  light  and  electricity,  and  they  could  at 
any  moment  and  place  transform  the  one  into  the 
other.  They  had  also  observed  ages  before  that 
even  the  commonest  and  weakest  human  eye  had 
a  faint  luminosity  in  absolute  darkness,  and  that 
any  exertion  of  the  will  or  passing  wave  of  passion 
greatly  increased  it.  Beside  this  fact  they  put  the 
open  secret  that  men  of  strong  will  and  character 
differed  from  their  fellows  in  the  power  of  the  eye,  not 
only  over  human  beings  but  over  animals,  and  also 
the  fact  that  the  long-known  plaything,  mesmerism, 
had  the  eye  as  its  chief  organ.  They  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  will  was  on  its  physical  side  a 
magnetic  force,  and  that  though  most  of  its  play  was 
through  the  sense  of  touch,  the  muscular  energies,  and 
the  voice,  the  eye  was  its  highest  and  best  channel. 


o 


6  Limanora 


This  inference  was  strengthened  by  noticing  that 
amongst  animals  the  fiercest-willed  and  most  predatory 
could  paralyse  their  victims  by  the  exercise  of  some 
optic  power,  and  as  they  prowled  through  the  night, 
they  had  a  perceptible  glitter  in  their  eyes  that  shone 
in  the  dark  like  lamps.  They  applied  themselves  to 
a  minute  and  systematic  investigation  of  the  subject, 
and  soon  had  instruments  which  would  respond  to  the 
faintest  ocular  exercise  of  the  will.  They  could 
measure  any  increase  in  the  magnetic  power  of  the 
eye;  and  before  long  it  was  observed  that  the  subjects 
they  experimented  on  grew  rapidly  in  optic  magnetism 
as  they  practised,  and  came  to  have  a  perceptible  sheen 
in  their  eyes  when  they  stood  in  the  darkness.  These 
men  and  women  were  found  to  have  rapidly  increasing 
power  of  sending  anyone  to  sleep  by  gazing  at  him. 
At  last  all  doubt  vanished  as  to  the  new  latent  faculty 
which  lay  in  the  eye. 

They  set  themselves  vigorously  to  turn  this  new 
knowledge  into  art,  and  trained  themselves,  and  still 
more  their  children,  in  eye-power  till  it  became  an  in- 
stinctive habit  to  use  it.  After  a  time  they  came 
to  see  that  the  power  was  not  one  but  manifold;  the 
sleep-inducing  effect  was  only  an  elementary  applica- 
tion of  it.  A  further  development  was  a  soothing  in- 
fluence upon  the  nerves  that  never  went  as  far  as  sleep. 
Then  the  medicative  powers  of  the  eye  were  raised  in 
the  families  of  medicists  into  capacities  which  seemed 
to  me  almost  preternatural.  A  more  widely  diffused 
specialisation  of  the  new  function  was  eye-language. 
Long-continued  emotional  dialogues  would  proceed  in 
companies  where  I  could  not  hear  a  sound,  and  at' the 
end  Thyriel  would  tell  me  the  intricacies  of  the  inter- 
play of  thought  and  emotion.     It  is  true  they  could 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       137 

not  easily  communicate  any  unspiritual  fact,  needing 
some  concrete  image,  unless  they  employed  the  code  of 
eye-signals  which  every  Limanoran  learned;  this  com- 
bined the  motions  of  either  eye  and  magnetic  impulses 
of  various  kinds  and  degrees,  and  contained  several 
thousand  words  and  phrases.  I  had  so  much  to  learn 
in  the  island  that  I  had  not  time  to  master  more  than 
a  few  of  the  simpler  combinations,  so  that  I  was  often 
bewildered  in  their  silent  assemblies.  But  for  a  long 
time  what  seemed  to  me  most  marvellous  was  that 
intimate  and  facile  converse  went  on  when  the  two 
friends  were  at  considerable  distances  from  each  other; 
when  occupied  in  this  they  kept  alternately  turning  the 
back  and  the  face.  This  was  due  to  the  receptive  mag- 
netic faculty  being  in  the  back  of  the  neck  and  the 
active  one  being  in  the  eye.  The  eye  was  receptive  in 
only  a  secondary  degree,  so  that  when  the  magnetic 
impulse  was  weakened  by  distance,  the  eye  could  not 
interpret  it,  and  the  back  had  to  be  turned  in  order  to 
catch  its  full  force.  To  see  two  men  or  women  standing 
a  mile  or  two  apart  and  wheeling  back  and  front  every 
minute,  and  that,  too,  in  alternating  harmony  as  if  they 
had  been  two  sympathetic  toys,  at  first  would  have 
made  me  laugh  but  for  my  wonder;  and  when  the  in- 
tercourse was  rapid  they  looked  like  two  whirling 
dervishes;  but  I  grew  accustomed  to  the  sight,  and 
soon  began  to  feel  with  the  people  themselves  that  it 
was  a  most  dignified  feature  of  their  life.  For  a  time 
it  seemed  almost  beyond  nature  that  they  could  com- 
municate even  emotions  and  impulses  at  such  a  dis- 
tance; for  it  was  only  emotions  and  impulses,  and  not 
facts,  that  passed,  as  the  motions  of  the  eye  were 
not  apparent  except  within  comparatively  short  spaces. 
Yet  there   were   electro-magnifiers   which,    affixed   to 


3 


8  Limanora 


their  firla  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  enabled  them  to 
feel  the  faintest  impulse  from  a  distance  and  interpret 
it,  and  a  modification  of  the  vimolan,  used  like  spec- 
tacles, reduced  the  sense-numbing  power  of  distance  a 
thousand-fold ;  they  could  see  by  means  of  these  electro- 
optical  instruments  the  minutest  movement  many  miles 
off. 

The  most  striking  manifestation  of  their  active  elec- 
tric faculty  was  to  be  seen  only  in  a  few  Limanorans, 
who  would  have  been  in  the  primitive  ages  leaders  of 
masses  either  as  orators  or  as  warriors.  These  had 
such  power  of  eye  that  they  could  bend  others  to  their 
purpose  without  the  utterance  of  a  word.  It  was  not 
greater  genius  or  nobility  of  thought  or  strength  of 
character  that  made  them  so  much  more  influential 
than  their  fellows,  but  sheer  magnetic  force  of  will. 
With  evil  motives  or  depraved  minds,  they  would  have 
been  dangerous  to  the  whole  community:  as  mere  war 
leaders  or  beasts  of  prey  they  would  have  been  exiled; 
but  with  beneficent  purpose  and  a  deep-ingrained  sense 
of  the  ultimate  aim  of  their  whole  civilisation,  they 
were  of  great  power  on  the  side  of  progress.  They 
were  the  organisers  of  the  community,  the  captains  of 
industry.  They,  managed  and  directed  the  various 
services  in  which  all  the  citizens  had  to  take  part  so 
that  there  should  be  no  superfluous  issue  of  commands, 
no  friction,  or  even  consciousness  of  direction.  They 
were  in  complete  sympathy  with  all  the  people,  binding 
them  into  a  unity  of  discipline;  and  their  magnetism  of 
will,  applied  through  the  eye,  served  but  to  stir  the 
love  of  service  and  duty  to  enthusiasm.  In  an  age  of 
semi-savagery,  or  of  revised  savagery  such  as  the 
military  ages  of  Europe  were,  some  of  them  would 
have  been  great  conquerors,  combining  many  peoples 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       139 

and  vast  territories  for  a  few  years  in  order  to  sate 
their  ambition  or  love  of  glory.  As  it  was,  the  equal 
development  of  their  other  powers  and  the  universal 
dominance  of  the  moral  aim  of  the  race  made  their 
wills  innocuous. 

It  was  the  same  with  the  other  manifestations  of 
human  magnetism,  which  in  defective  or  half-developed 
civilisations  played  so  maleficent  a  part.  That  power 
of  voice  and  speech  which  could  sway  mobs  to  evil  in 
such  communities  was  in  Umanora  the  endowment  of 
every  citizen.  The  electric  tone  quivered  and  rang  in 
every  voice  I  heard;  it  was  like  the  sweetest  music, 
drawing  the  soul  to  it.  The  fascination  of  person- 
ality, which  so  often  in  Western  women,  even  where 
they  have  no  beauty  or  grace,  proves  the  ruin  of 
dozens  of  men,  belonged  to  both  sexes  in  Limanora 
and  to  every  citizen.  It  was  a  powerful,  diffused 
magnetism  ever  attracting  its  opposite  without  reveal- 
ing its  secret  even  to  its  possessor.  There  was  to  me 
something  very  winsome  in  most  of  them,  even  when 
saying  and  doing  nothing;  and  in  Thyriel,  although 
my  intellect  told  me  she  was  not  what  Europeans  call 
beautiful,  this  became  ravishing.  Her  personal  mag- 
netism was  overpowering,  even  when  she  was  silent  and 
stood  at  a  distance,  and  in  rude  times  of  ignorance 
would  have  been  set  down  to  witchcraft. 

All  these  investigations  and  results  I  learned  as 
clearly  as  if  I  saw  them  with  the  eye,  in  the  firlamai  or 
division  of  the  electric  sense,  one  of  the  vast  halls  of 
Oomalefa.  Here  were  all  the  instruments  needed  to 
develop  the  firla  or  aid  it,  and  all  those  by  which 
it  sought  deeper  into  the  secrets  of  nature.  Off  the 
hall  ran  corridors  and  arcades,  which  were  to  the  firla 
what  picture  and  sculpture  galleries  are  to  the  ocular 


i-jo  Limanora 

imagination,  supplying  it  with  noble  and  pleasurable 
excitation,  as  the  music  domes  touched  the  aural 
imagination.  They  had  their  passive  firlamaic  arts 
of  beauty  as  well  as  their  active.  In  one  vast  arcade 
they  could  sit  and  feel  with  their  firlas  the  electric 
harmonies  of  any  given  tract  of  air  or  earth  or  ocean, 
the  harmonies  that  play  as  it  were  on  the  surface;  this 
was  equivalent  to  gazing  at  landscapes,  real  or  pic- 
tured, with  the  eye.  In  another  there  was  firlamaic 
sculpture;  in  this  were  gathered  the  noblest  achieve- 
ments of  their  electric  artists,  who  strove  to  concentrate 
into  some  definite  form  varied  magnetic  materials  so 
as  to  stir  the  imagination  through  the  firla  to  thoughts 
of  the  titanic  harmonies  of  the  universe.  They  gave  this 
form  beauty  for  the  eye  as  well ;  but  that  was  not  the 
primary  aim;  the  gazers,  as  they  sat,  preferred  to  turn 
their  backs  to  the  work;  for  then  through  the  firla 
their  imagination  was  thrown  into  an  attitude  of  placid 
meditation  which  seemed  to  have  before  it  some  great 
spheral  harmony  of  the  stars.  In  a  third  series  of  lofty 
corridors  there  was  continually  proceeding  what  might 
be  called  firlamaic  music.  In  two  or  three  it  was 
entirely  instrumental.  Great  firlamans  or  electric 
organs,  at  each  end  of  one  corridor  I  entered,  flashed 
out  what  was  to  me  the  most  appalling  medley  of 
lightnings  ;  the  gleams  crossed  and  interwove  and 
changed  mass  and  form  as  if  it  were  a  dance  of  meteors, 
now  slow  and  stately  like  a  minuet,  again  swift  and 
brilliant  and  dazzling  as  if  the  stars  of  heaven  had 
joined  the  lightnings  in  a  bewildering  yet  harmonious 
ballet.  At  first  I  was  stunned  and  blinded;  but  soon 
I  felt  dimly  the  ecstasy  apparent  in  my  neighbours. 
Their  eyes  gleamed  with  joy;  to  me  some  of  them 
seemed  almost  in  a  delirium;  they  were  unconscious 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       141 

of  their  immediate  surroundings,  for  I  spoke  to  Thyriel 
and  received  no  answer,  and  her  motion  through  the 
hall  as  we  started  to  leave  it  was  somnambulous.  She 
told  me  afterwards  that,  though  her  firla  was  only  in 
its  infancy,  she  felt  drawn  up  into  the  heavens  as  in  a 
trance;  she  seemed  to  feel  the  worlds  move  around  her 
and  attract  her  into  their  spheral  chant;  her  imagina- 
tion dealt  with  interastral  forces  as  with  playmates 
from  eternity;  she  leapt  vast  ages  every  moment,  and 
spanned  in  a  stride  spaces  which  seemed  to  her  com- 
mon powers  infinite.  She  would  not  rest  till  she  could 
enjoy  this  macrocosmic  orchestra  to  the  full  as  her 
parents  did;  she  would  not  let  a  day  pass  without  such 
practice  as  would  develop  her  firla  to  the  utmost.  I 
felt  solitary  and  forlorn  as  I  heard  her  ecstatic  descrip- 
tions and  resolves,  and  thought  upon  my  incapacity  to 
understand  them.  In  a  moment  she  knew  my  dejec- 
tion, and  realised  how  forgetful  she  had  been  of  me  and 
of  her  surroundings.  She  at  once  threw  off  her  imagi- 
native trance  of  magnetic  enjoyment,  and  determined 
to  keep  pace  with  my  advance.  It  was  a  slow  and 
weary  path  I  had  to  travel ;  but  her  cheerful  encourage- 
ment prevented  despair.  Through  the  years  between 
I  was  able  by  dint  of  constant  and  vigorous  practice  to 
concentrate  into  my  eyes  and  into  the  back  of  my  head 
much  of  the  magnetic  power  and  receptiveness  that  had 
existed  before  in  my  body,  but  in  a  diffused  condition. 
I  was  at  last  able  to  go  with  her  and  appreciate  the 
stellar  imaginings  which  the  flashing  firlamans  excited. 
There  was  another  majestic  arcade,  in  which  Lima- 
noran  artists  themselves  joined  in  sublime  firlamaic 
music.  On  my  first  visit  to  it,  many  years  after  my 
introduction  to  Oomalefa,  I  was  appalled  to  see  human 
beings  stand  like  Joves  flashing  long  tongues  of  light- 


i42  Limanora 

ning  or  flame  from  their  eyes  or  fingers;  they  seemed 
to  stand  unscathed  in  a  fiery  furnace,  or  rather  to 
weave  and  plait  and  mould  the  flames  as  if  they  had 
been  threads  of  some  plastic  material.  Had  I  come 
here  during  my  early  novitiate  in  the  island,  I  should 
have  fled  in  terror  as  from  dreams  of  hell  realised. 
There  in  the  midst  passed  the  artist  like  a  dark  shuttle 
through  a  loom  of  lightnings  as  he  wove  them  into  an 
ever-changing  web  of  living  colour.  For  a  time  I 
could  not  control  my  terror,  as  I  looked  to  see  him 
shrivelled  to  ashes.  At  last  through  my  reason  I  man- 
aged to  calm  myself  into  feeling  that  he  was  the  master 
and  creator  of  this  display  and  that  the  dreadful  tongues 
of  flame  and  swift  meteors  which  rose  and  vanished 
around  him  were  unstinged  and  innocuous.  Then 
began  to  creep  into  me  a  sweet  sense  of  some  magnetic 
harmony,  stirring  my  mind  to  contemplation  of  the 
mighty  forces  of  the  world.  I  seemed  to  know  the 
voiceless  majesty  of  time,  as  if  vast  ages  were  crushed 
into  moments;  I  followed  our  orb  as  it  swept  away  from 
the  immense  concentric  circles  of  flame  wheeling  round 
the  core  of  whirling  fire;  I  saw  it  mass  into  an  eye  of 
passion  fixed  in  gaze  upon  the  mother  star  it  had  left; 
alone  it  travelled  into  space  tied  like  an  infant  still  by 
magnetic  threads  to  the  parent  sun;  out  into  the  in- 
finite it  yearned  to  rush  seeking  life  and  souls  to  nestle 
in  its  bosom;  yet  never  would  the  unseen  mother  cord 
give  way.  Out  and  out  flamed  the  earth  into  immeas- 
urable space  and  the  wild  longing  was  calmed;  the 
tempests  of  fire  lulled  and  fell;  the  luminous  billows 
ceased  to  rear  their  crests  or  toss  their  fiery  spindrift; 
a  dull,  still-glimmering  crust  imprisoned  her  torrid 
heart;  the  conflagrations  burst  forth  in  wider  and 
wider  intervals.     At  last  she  wooed  the  germs  of  life 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       143 

from  the  wandering  infinities  to  rest  for  brief  spaces  on 
her  bosom.  Night  brought  peace  to  her,  and  the  stars 
with  their  cool  and  unimpassioned  rays  bred  within 
her  through  the  ages  gentle  thoughts  and  a  love  of 
teeming  life;  they  quenched  her  superficial  fires,  and, 
binding  chains  of  magnetic  power  around  her,  drew  her 
out  into  spaces  of  infinity  beyond  the  scorching  flame 
tongues  of  her  fervid  mother.  Life  born  and  nursed  in 
the  cold  interstellar  tracts  teemed  on  her  breast.  Back 
she  sprang  again  into  the  warmer  rays  of  the  mother 
orb,  breaking  the  stellar  bonds,  and  life  leapt  from  sea 
to  air  and  crawled  upon  the  new-won  lands  in  mon- 
strous forms.  Last  came  the  strangest  monster  of  all, 
erect  like  a  bird,  yet  wingless,  first  swinging  from  tree 
to  tree,  then  skimming  the  plains  upon  the  backs  of 
fellow-beasts  he  had  mastered:  man,  the  portent  of 
God,  had  come.  Slowly  he  grew  and  slowly  sloughed 
off  his  beast  habits  Prehistoric  time  focussed  into  a 
moment.  First  came  tyranny  and  war  as  moulders  of 
his  spirit;  then  they  became  monsters,  barring  his  way 
to  the  divine.  Great  monarchies  and  empires  flew  by- 
like  a  lightning  flash;  thousands  of  years  with  their 
events  or  somnolences  passed  swift  as  a  dream. 
Stronger  grew  reason  in  man's  brain,  the  love  in  his 
heart;  divine  influences  surrounded  him,  watching  the 
dawn  of  the  new  power  of  thought  and  nursing  the 
growth  of  the  spirit  in  him.  Then  out  of  the  darkness 
came  the  historic  ages  of  this  island's  progress  towards 
diviner  light,  and  rushed  in  a  flash  across  my  brain. 

Then  I  awoke  from  this  ennobling  dream,  swift  and 
beautiful  as  a  trance  made  up  of  moments,  each  of  which 
contained  an  eternity.  The  electric  song  of  the  history 
of  our  world  had  ceased,  and  my  spirit  fell  like  a  meteor 
from  heaven,  out  of  the  exhilaration  and  the  ecstasv. 


H4  Limanora 

Never  before  had  I  felt  as  if  my  life  was  that  of  a  god 
watching  from  above  the  flight  of  time.  I  scarcely 
knew  that  the  darkness  around  me  had  suddenly 
turned  into  daylight  and  the  web  of  lightning  flashes 
had  vanished;  I  was  led  from  the  arcade  by  Thyriel  as 
in  a  dream.  When  we  reached  the  gallery  which  over- 
looked the  ocean  and  I  turned  my  eyes  to  the  dome  of 
heaven,  I  was  conscious  that  a  new  glory  had  come  into 
my  life.  Dim  though  my  conception  of  the  electric 
song  of  creation  had  been,  I  realised  with  joy  what  a 
vast  universe  had  been  added  to  the  possibilities  of 
my  life  by  the  discovery  of  this  new  sense  and  of  the 
sublime  things  I  might  perceive  through  it.  I  would 
not  be  behind  Thyriel  in  the  cultivation  of  the  magnet- 
ism in  my  system,  but  would  enter  with  redoubled 
ardour  on  the  practice  of  my  firla. 

It  was  thus  too  I  came  to  understand  the  passion 
they  had  for  Firlalain,  as  this  section  of  Oomalefa  was 
called.  The  young  were  not  allowed  to  enter  it,  lest  it 
should  act  as  a  narcotic  on  their  sense  of  duty  to  the 
ultimate  aim  of  their  civilisation.  Not  till  they  had 
gained  full  mastery  of  themselves,  and  especially  of 
their  appetites  and  passions,  were  they  admitted,  and 
even  then  it  was  with  a  caution  which  showed  the 
greatness  of  the  risk  they  incurred.  The  delights  of 
the  new  sense  were  apt  to  grow  intoxicating,  and  there 
had  been  at  one  time  a  fear  of  some  becoming  magnetic 
drunkards,  who  would  spend  their  days  in  Firlalain 
besotted  with  indolent  enjoyment  of  the  exhilarating 
flight  through  the  realms  of  fancy,  and  heedless  of  the 
health  and  interests  of  their  other  tissues.  Once  they 
had  reached  maturity,  there  was  no  such  fear;  and  no 
curb  was  then  set  upon  their  liberty  to  enter  these  halls 
of  electric  harmony. 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       145 

After  the)-  had  come  to  that  stage  of  life  when  the 
walls  of  their  blood-vessels  began  to  lose  flexibility,  it 
became  almost  a  duty  to  frequent  Firlalain.  The 
stimulus  given  to  the  currents  of  life  by  the  mere  phy- 
sical influence  of  the  electricity  was  enough  to  overcome 
the  growing  rigidity  of  cell  and  tissue;  but  the  rush 
of  thought  and  fancy  gave  the  whole  nature  such  im- 
petus that  the  torrent  of  the  blood  through  its  chan- 
nels induced  the  plasticity  of  youth  again.  They  had 
other  methods  of  postponing  the  approach  of  old  age; 
they  could  withdraw  from  the  walls  of  the  various 
vessels  of  the  body  the  accumulation  of  lime  and  other 
hardening  elements;  there  were  several  chambers  of 
diet  the  atmosphere  of  which  neutralised  the  increase 
of  salts  and  carbons  in  the  body,  and  other  medicinal 
chambers  which  could  bring  off  by  the  pores  any  dele- 
terious or  obstructive  matters  forming  in  any  of  the 
tissues;  but  Firlalain  was  the  most  effective  postponer 
of  that  stage  of  life  when  yearnings  come  into  the  heart 
for  final  and  complete  rest,  for  it  flooded  the  whole 
being  with  new  impulse  and  new  energy.  Most  of  all 
was  the  great  stellar  arcade  frequented  by  the  old  in 
order  to  drive  off  the  ennui  of  existence;  a  feeling 
which  indicated  the  gradual  calcarescence  or  indura- 
tion of  the  brain  and  heart-tissues.  Here  any  region 
of  the  starry  night  they  chose  could  be  made  to  con- 
centrate its  magnetic  influence  upon  their  firla.  A 
man  might  take  a  new  tract  and  new  blending  of  im- 
aginative impulse  every  day  of  life  for  centuries  and 
yet  not  exhaust  the  limit  of  variety;  for  the  stars 
moved  through  infinite  space  as  the  earth  moved,  but 
in  different  directions,  and  ever  new  universes  or  worlds 
were  coming  within  the  range  of  the  Limauoran  electric 
sense. 


146  Limanora 

I  shall  not  easily  forget  my  first  experience  of  this 
astral  gallery.  Along  it  at  intervals  were  placed  great 
electroscopes  and  magnetic  magnifiers,  that  gathered  in 
electric  influences  from  various  portions  of  the  heavens. 
Almost  every  seat  was  occupied  by  one  of  the  older  in- 
habitants of  the  island,  and  as  they  sat  with  the  focus 
of  the  huge  instrument  resting  on  their  neck  their  faces 
seemed  almost  to  have  a  halo  round  them,  so  brightly 
did  they  beam  with  ecstasy.  Their  eyes  were  closed, 
and  I  would  have  said  that  each  was  dreaming  some 
dream  of  glory  which  inundated  his  being,  had  I  not 
seen  their  eyes  open  for  a  moment  as  we  passed,  in  con- 
sciousness of  the  world  around;  the  vision  came  to 
their  waking  imagination.  Then  I  looked  up  through 
the  great  magnifying  domes  and  saw  the  stars  and  con- 
stellations mass  upon  the  face  of  heaven,  and  huge 
spheres  concentrating  upon  themselves  the  sheen  of 
some  starry  circle. 

Thy  del  led  me  to  one  vacant  seat,  and  before  I 
turned  my  back  to  the  magnetic  lens,  I  gazed  upwards 
and  saw  the  Southern  Cross  pouring  down  its  silver 
arrows.  I  had  not  sat  there  long  before  a  thrill  came 
upon  me  which  spread  throughout  my  system;  my 
pulse  fluttered  like  a  bird  in  contending  storms;  every 
nerve  began  to  throb  with  expectation  and  delight;  I 
could  have  created  worlds  in  my  ardour  ;  sublime 
thoughts  swam  in  from  eternity  upon  my  soul ;  I  had 
the  mother  passion  within  me  which  would  have 
moulded  nobler  spirits  than  my  own.  At  last  I  felt 
the  currents  of  my  existence  centre  upon  one  realm  of 
space  and  was  conscious  of  countless  life  around  me 
which  struggled  and  mounted  upwards.  I  felt  my 
nature  drawn  to  higher  levels  than,  any  terrene  exist- 
ence I   had  ever  known.      I  seemed  to  breathe  with 


The  Firla,  or  Electric  Sense       147 

difficulty  the  diviner  airs  of  greater  purpose,  and  yet 
there  were  strains  of  discord  from  lower  types  of  being 
revealing  gradations  in  the  new  universe.  Some  orbs 
were  already  on  the  path  of  decay ;  and  on  them  the 
higher  life  was  succumbing  to  the  weakened  vitality. 
Others  had  just  attained  to  life;  and  on  them  had 
settled  migrants  from  other  spheres,  whose  elevating 
powers  they  had  exhausted.  Some  were  flitting  like 
ghosts  about  their  mother  suns  with  but  a  thin  ethereal 
life  now  darting  between  atmosphere  and  solid  crust. 
Only  one  planet  in  each  system  was  passing  through 
the  climax  in  its  history,  and  near  it  my  rapture  became 
too  great  to  bear;  my  veins  seemed  on  the  point  of 
bursting  with  the  fulness  of  life;  my  soul  was  dragged 
above  my  natural  level,  till  the  physical  bonds  which 
fettered  me  were  about  to  break,  and  I  was  glad  to  be 
attracted  to  other  circling  orbs  that  with  coarser  but 
stronger  magnetism  drew  me  to  them.  The  median 
point  of  balanced  joy  was  reached  when,  resting  be- 
tween two  spheres,  I  felt  their  magnetic  currents 
neutralise  each  other,  and  yet  the  higher  influence  of 
the  new  system  raise  the  pulsing  of  my  spirit.  As  full 
bliss  was  it  when,  darting  from  system  to  system,  I  ex- 
perienced the  power  of  life  that  dwelt  in  each,  and  felt 
the  varied  types  of  existence  mingling  their  magnetic 
thought  with  mine;  I  could  feel  the  struggling  of 
worlds  up  to  their  goal  thrill  through  my  spirit;  on 
the  underside  it  was  like  the  wail  of  one  who  has  aban- 
doned the  upward  conflict  and  plunged  into  the  waters 
of  oblivion;  on  its  upper  side  it  was  like  the  fervour  of 
souls  who  see  through  mists  of  life  the  elysium  they 
have  yearned  for.  I  was  conscious  of  the  infinite 
tragedy  being  enacted  upon  each  orb,  and  yet  not  near 
enough  to  see  what  destiny  awaited  it.     I  was  drawn 


148  Limanora 

within  the  eddy  of  a  new  and  loftier  ambition;  my 
spirit  perceived  stages  of  being  within  its  reach,  yet 
beyond  all  it  had  known;  and  it  throbbed  with  new 
eagerness  to  rise  above  itself.  Nothing  could  be  more 
rapturous  than  the  consciousness  of  this  system  beyond 
system,  each  with  its  own  type  of  life  and  stage  of 
spiritual  aim,  each  with  its  peculiar  medley  of  magnetic 
influence,  each  drawn  into  its  own  vortex  of  emotion 
and  energy. 

A  touch  on  my  hand  broke  the  spell,  and  I  was  down 
on  earth  again,  exalted,  yet  knowing  the  contrast.  It 
was  Thyriel,  who  would  remind  me  of  my  duty  to  my 
own  being  and  to  the  state.  I  arose  and  moved  out 
with  her  but  she  knew  the  ecstasy  too  well  to  break 
in  on  my  dream,  and  led  me  out  to  the  sea  arcade, 
where  I  could  hear  the  low  rippling  melody  of  the 
waves  beneath  and  the  faint  music  of  the  world  of  air. 
I  turned  my  eyes  up  to  the  azure,  and  seemed  to  tread 
amongst  the  orbs  that  veiled  their  silver  radiance  in  the 
blaze  of  noon.  Out  of  my  life,  I  am  sure,  the  exalta- 
tion never  wholly  vanished.  I  had  been  among  the 
living  fountains  of  eternity.  I  had  moved  conscious  of 
the  birth  of  worlds,  and  known  the  throb  that  is  a 
myriad  of  ages.  Was  this  not  to  be  kin  with  God,  to 
know  the  all-grasping  passion  of  a  moment  of  divine 
life  ?  Ever  and  again  the  greatness  of  the  memory 
flamed  out  into  conflagration  within  me,  and  I  was 
then  in  the  mood  to  make  or  conquer  worlds;  and 
never  wholly  out  of  my  blood  died  the  exaltation  I 
had  felt. 


CHAPTER   XI 


A   CATASTROPHE 


BUT  long  years  divided  my  first  visit  to  Oomalefa 
and  my  admission  to  Firlalain.  I  saw  that  there 
were  certain  vast  sections  of  Oomalefa  that  I  was  led 
past;  massive  portals  showed  their  rank,  but  the  num- 
ber on  them  defining  the  age  at  which  entrance  was 
possible  warned  us  off,  and  allegorical  pictures  adorn- 
ing their  arches  figured  the  decay  of  tissue  and  cell  that 
would  result  in  the  youthful  body  from  too  earl}-  ad- 
mittance. Any  curiosity  Thyriel  or  I  could  have  felt 
was  repressed  by  these  ominous  symbols;  for  this 
people  never  relied  on  mere  authority.  Their  strongest 
prohibitions  were  in  the  form  of  graphic  appeals  to  the 
reason,  and  only  where  these  could  not  impress  youth- 
ful natures  sufficiently  were  the  emotions  involved; 
the  influences  of  any  special  indulgence  upon  the 
human  system  were  represented  in  living  form,  which, 
looked  at  through  a  medium  magnifying  them  ten 
thousand-fold,  stirred  the  heart  of  all  the  more  deeply. 
We  saw  in  a  moment  that  we  were  unfit  to  enter  Fir- 
lalain, and  we  passed  on  into  the  vast  series  of  baths 
wherein  the  U manor ans  could  rid  their  bodies  of  ob- 
structive or  noxious  elements.  Here  was  every  grade 
of  temperature  endurable  by  their  tissues:   for  every 

149 


150  Limanora 

grade  there  was  a  separate  swimming-pool  in  which 
they  could  exercise  themselves;  and  every  hour  auto- 
matic machinery  driven  by  force  from  Rimla  sent  the 
contents  of  each  pool  into  one  of  the  lava  wells,  where 
in  a  few  moments  the  water  and  all  the  debris  thrown 
off  from  the  bathers'  bodies  vanished  in  fire.  These 
baths  were  so  arranged  that  not  more  than  two  should 
be  empty  together,  and  at  the  general  entrance  were 
seated  two  medical  counsellors,  who  measured  and 
tested  the  state  and  temperature  of  the  body,  and 
showed  graphically  what  would  be  the  effect  of  enter- 
ing each  bath  of  the  series  to  which  the  state  of  the 
bather  restricted  him. 

Far  more  important  than  these  water  baths  were  the 
baths  of  ether,  baths  of  magnetism,  and  solar  baths,  in 
which  any  portion  of  the  body  or  the  whole  of  it  could 
be  submitted  to  the  purified  forces  of  the  world.  From 
the  ethereal  baths  all  terrene  elements  were  exhausted, 
and  there  remained  the  pure  medium  of  life  beyond 
our  atmosphere,  the  divine  air  which  spiritual  beings 
breathe.  Nothing  so  raised  the  power  of  the  mind 
over  the  body  or  the  part  of  the  body  immersed  in  this. 
It  partially  and  for  the  time  being  dematerialised  the 
part,  withdrawing  its  earthy  tendencies,  and  giving  it 
an  exhilarant  atmosphere  in  which  it  acquired  new  life 
and  energy,  and  resisted  the  encroachments  of  lower 
parasitic  life.  The  two  other  kinds  of  baths  had  some- 
what the  same  effect,  but  were  less  powerful  than  this. 
Magnetism  allowed  the  ether  a  more  direct  influence 
than  either  water  or  air;  it  concentrated  the  force  of 
the  purer  medium  on  any  point.  The  solar  baths  had 
been  used  from  time  immemorial.  It  had  been  one  of 
the  earliest  discoveries  of  their  science  that  the  lower 
organisations  and  microscopic  forms  of  life  that  bat- 


A  Catastrophe  151 


tened  on  the  human  frame  lost  vitality  in  the  full 
beams  of  the  sun.  Later  their  investigators  had  found 
that  solar  radiance  dispelled  the  vapours  and  terrene 
elements  which  floated  in  the  air,  clinging  invisibly  to 
bodies  and  forming  the  feeding-ground  of  quickly 
generative  microbes.  It  purified  by  its  energy  all  that 
it  came  into  contact  with,  and  in  short  allowed  the 
ether  which  was  its  medium  freer  play.  For  genera- 
tions sunshine  had  been  one  of  their  most  successful 
curative  agencies  and  was  now  used  to  reinforce  and 
stimulate  human  life  and  energy.  The  rays  of  the  sun, 
blanched  to  some  extent  of  their  heat  and  excessive 
force,  were  concentrated  in  rooms  made  wholly  of 
transparent  irelium,  or  upon  irelium  glasses  of  various 
shapes  and  forms  to  suit  the  part  of  the  body  to  be 
subjected  to  their  influence.  These  were  their  solar 
baths;  but  their  whole  system  of  life  was  one  con- 
tinuous solar  bath:  for  every  corner  of  their  houses 
both  public  and  private  was  laid  open  to  the  sun's  in 
fluence  from  dawn  to  twilight,  and  this  stored  up  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  rooms  and  halls  forms  of  energy 
which  during  the  night  gave  ease  and  exhilaration  to 
those  who  slept.  They  fully  realised  that  it  was  not 
merely  heat  and  light  they  got  from  the  sun,  but  subtle 
energies,  a  fine  aroma  from  the  diviner  medium  that 
filled  the  interstellar  spaces. 

Every  Limanoran  of  an  age  to  be  admitted  to  Ooma- 
lefa  resorted  several  times  a  day  to  each  of  these  three 
kinds  of  baths.  First  came  a  magnetic  bath,  in  which 
every  organ  and  tissue  was  stimulated  to  throw  off  its 
debris  towards  the  pores.  Then  came  the  swim  in  one 
or  more  of  the  pools,  in  order  that  all  this  rejected 
part  might  be  washed  off.  After  this  came  the  solar 
bath,  which  penetrated  into  the  superficial  channels  of 


152  Limanora 

the  body  and  swept  away  all  bacterial  life  that  might 
be  nocuous.  The  last  stage  was  the  ethereal  bath, 
which  was  enjoyed  in  solitude  and  could  be  endured  by 
any  but  the  mature  for  only  a  few  minutes;  the  ex- 
hilaration and  tenuity  of  atmosphere  were  too  great  for 
unaccustomed  lungs,  and  I  could  see  the  heads  of  the 
bathers  thrust  out  at  short  intervals  to  take  a  breath. 
But  long  practice  made  the  older  Limanorans  enjoy  the 
buoyancy  of  the  pure  medium  for  hours.  It  was  in- 
deed one  of  the  hopes  of  the  race  that  they  would  be 
able  at  last  to  breathe  the  interstellar  ether  with  greater 
ease  than  the  air  surrounding  their  own  earth. 

It  was  in  these  baths  I  first  came  to  see  the  marvel- 
lous grace  and  plasticity  of  their  garments.  They 
were  outside  of  all  my  previous  experiences  and  concep- 
tions, and  seemed  so  natural  that  I  took  them  for  a  part 
of  their  material  outfit  like  their  hair.  It  had  never 
entered  into  my  mind  to  question  whether  they  laid 
them  aside  in  sleep  or  not.  Perhaps  it  was  owing  to 
the  beauty  and  animation  of  the  countenance,  when 
they  spoke  or  even  looked,  that  I  had  not  paid  any 
attention  to  their  dress  except  to  see  how  it  never  im- 
peded their  movements  either  in  flight  or  in  work,  and 
how  it  varied  with  the  individual,  and  never  with  the 
sex  or  age  or  profession;  it  belonged  to  the  childhood 
of  the  world  to  regiment  men  in  the  minor  details  of 
life.  Now  I  saw  in  the  baths  that  the  vesture  did  not 
need  to  be  laid  aside  in  other  elements  than  air.  It 
was  made  of  some  fine  and  flexible  stuff  woven  out  of 
irelium  threads,  plastic  to  the  shape,  yet  capable  of 
stiffening  out  when  the  wearer  sent  an  electric  wave 
through  it  from  the  electro-generator  he  always  bore 
under  his  right  arm.  This  process  at  once  shook  out 
every  drop  of  water  from  it,  when  he  issued  from  the 


A  Catastrophe  153 

bath  or  the  sea.  It  was  so  porous  that  it  seemed 
fragile,  and  yet  it  could  bear  great  strains.  Through 
its  pores  passed  with  ease  the  water  or  air  or  ether  that 
was  to  influence  the  body  underneath;  and  along  its 
threads  passed  with  ease  any  magnetism  the  wearer 
wished  to  feel.  In  certain  lights  it  was  almost  trans- 
parent, yet  with  such  a  play  of  rainbow  colors  that  it 
seemed  a  living  fence  against  lights  and  shadows.  In 
the  darkness  it  shone  with  dazzling  radiance  as  soon 
as  the  electric  current  flowed  into  it.  At  the  will  of 
the  wearer  it  could  be,  like  a  magic-garment  of  invis- 
ibility, black  as  midnight,  yet  in  daylight  could  reveal 
every  grace  and  tint  of  the  limbs  it  covered,  clinging 
closely  like  an  outer  epidermis  to  the  body.  Nor  was 
it  ever  laid  aside  except  to  be  replaced  by  a  new  ves- 
ture, and  that  was  every  few  days;  for  all  germs  and 
debris  that  adhered  to  it  or  obstructed  its  pores  could 
be  destroyed  and  got  rid  of  by  the  electric  current  the 
wearer  had  control  of.  It  was  on  my  first  visit  to 
Oomalefa  that  I  came  to  know  these  things,  as  it  was 
then  that  I  first  donned  a  like  vesture,  and  was  taught 
its  properties  and  the  ways  of  managing  it  and  the 
minute  electro-generator  that  went  with  it. 

There  were  alternative  garments,  that  they  wore 
under  different  conditions.  One,  almost  as  plastic  as 
the  ordinary  vesture,  but  armoured  by  electricity 
against  the  inroads  of  excessive  cold,  was  worn  when 
they  ventured  up  into  the  higher  regions  of  the  air  or 
beyond;  for  it  enabled  them  to  keep  up  the  natural 
temperature  of  the  bod}-  as  they  flew.  Another  was  as 
well  suited  for  protection  against  extreme  heat.  It 
consisted  of  an  asbestine  double  wall  of  irelium,  within 
which  was  kept  up  a  constant  cuirent  of  cold  air  by 
means  of  a  minute  apparatus  worked  by  their  wings 


154  Limanora 

and  arms;  and,  if  they  could  get  moisture  from  the 
atmosphere  to  run  between  the  two  textile  folds,  it  was 
at  once  frozen.  Such  an  arrangement  was  necessary 
in  their  adventurous  experiments  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth  or  under  the  blazing  eye  of  the  sun.  The  most 
beautiful  and  most  convenient  of  all  their  vestures 
was  one  which  looked  and  felt  like  a  film  of  white 
cloud;  I  would  have  said  that  it  was  woven  of  the 
misty  fleeces  that  caught  and  rent  themselves  on  the 
lesser  peaks  of  Lilaroma.  It  was  indeed  no  distant 
mimicry  of  this;  for  though  it  could  be  thrown  loosely 
round  the  figure  in  the  most  graceful  forms  like  a  toga, 
and  seemed  as  thin  and  fragile  as  gossamer,  it  consisted 
of  a  treble  fabric;  between  two  transparent  films,  fairly 
delicate  as  if  woven  by  a  spider  on  a  windless  dawn, 
moved  in  cloud-like  purity  and  dimness  the  airy  vapour 
of  some  liquid  that  shone  as  silvery  and  warm  as  moon- 
light. Its  purpose  was  to  conceal  and  yet  to  reveal  the 
general  contour  and  movements  of  the  body;  to  sift 
the  strength  of  the  sun's  rays  as  they  fell  in  their  purity 
from  heaven,  and  yet  to  pass  as  much  of  their  curative 
power  through  it  as  the  skin  needed;  to  cling  to  the 
limbs,  and  yet  to  impede  them  no  more  than  a  fleece  of 
cloud  would. 

It  was  as  I  was  studying  the  texture  and  the  beauty 
of  these  garments  that  there  happened  the  first  ap- 
proach to  panic  I  had  yet  witnessed  among  this  calm- 
eyed  people.  There  had  been  a  stillness  as  of  ill-bridled 
tumult  in  the  atmosphere  all  day.  My  proparents  had 
moved  restlessly  abroad  from  daybreak,  and  all  the 
Leomo  were  on  the  wing  husbanding  every  minute  with 
feverish  clutch.  We  were  sent  in  squadrons  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  island,  and  many  new  leomorans  were 
set  to  work  in  unaccustomed  corners  of  the  mountain, 


A  Catastrophe  155 

yet  there  was  a  look  of  baffled  intelligence  in  every 
face.  I  that  felt  there  was  an  undeciphered  portent 
overshadowing  their  life.  Thyriel  and  I  had  worked  at 
two  new  leomorans  and  watched  them  till  they  wielded 
their  brush  of  smoke  across  the  sky.  We  had  done  all 
that  we  could  and  were  sent  out  to  Oomalefa  to  uncloud 
our  troubled  minds. 

The  excitement  of  this  new  sphere  had  removed  from 
our  thoughts  all  ominous  shadows  and  we  were  as 
innocently  absorbed  as  primitive  men  of  the  wood- 
lands in  the  wonders  now  opened  to  us;  but  silence 
had  fallen  upon  the  gambolling  swimmers,  and  the 
hush  awakened  us  from  our  new  dream.  We  felt  the 
foundations  of  the  building  tremble  and  quiver  like  a 
panic-stricken  beast.  Up  the  translucent  walls  clicked 
a  huge  rent,  and  slowly  the  liquid  in  the  baths  hissed 
and  vanished.  A  tumultuous  muffled  cannonade  rolled 
beneath  us.  The  crystal  roof  crackled  and  snapped 
like  ice-rafts  that  groan  and  toss  before  a  sudden  flood. 
The  chink  widened  into  a  chasm,  and  through  it  we 
could  see  the  ocean  seethe  in  turbulence  and  revolution. 
Up  through  the  roof  whizzed  the  wings  of  the  alarmed 
bathers,  and  as  the  jarring  and  detonation  grew,  I 
stood  knowing  not  whither  to  turn.  All  I  could  do 
was  to  bid  Thyriel  follow  her  mates.  More  awful 
came  back  the  reverberations  from  the  domes,  and 
Thyriel's  face  was  pale  and  her  lips  set,  but  she  did 
not  move.  Finally  she  bade  me  follow  her  to  that  end 
of  the  gallery  farthest  from  the  chasm  in  the  walls,  a 
raised  platform  whence  the  swimmers  dived.  There 
she  placed  me  with  my  back  to  hers,  and  ran  a  rope 
under  my  arms.  Before  I  knew  what  she  was  about, 
I  was  off  my  feet;  she  was  running  at  full  speed  up 
the  rising  platform  and  with  a  sudden  jerk  we  were  in 


156  Limanora 

the  air.  I  heard  the  beating  of  her  wings,  and  lay  still 
lest  I  should  baffle  her  purpose.  I  lay  on  my  back  be- 
tween her  wings,  and  shuddered  as  I  saw  their  points 
broken  against  the  lips  of  the  chasm.  A  deep-mouthed 
clangour  filled  my  ears;  and  for  a  moment  my  eyelids 
fell  in  palsied  terror.  When  I  raised  them  and  looked 
down,  the  vast  crystal  of  Oomalefa  had  vanished  and 
the  great  promontory  stood  gaping,  with  the  surf  hiss- 
ing and  baying  as  it  leapt  over  the  upper  surface. 

I  felt  that  Thyriel  was  almost  exhausted,  and  thought 
of  detaching  myself  from  the  rope  which  bound  me  and 
leaping  into  the  ocean;  but  the  idea  had  not  quite 
grown  into  resolve  when  I  saw  her  wings  beat  slower 
and  knew  that  we  were  hovering  over  the  solid  land. 
In  a  moment  we  were  standing  side  by  side,  she 
exhausted,  I  supporting  her  with  my  arms.  It  was 
not  long  before  she  recovered  herself,  for  her  attention 
had  been  awakened  by  a  startling  appearance  out  in 
mid-ocean.  A  high  peak  rose  beyond  the  cleft  and 
scarred  promontory  where  there  had  been  only  waves 
before,  its  head  turbaned  with  steam  and  smoke.  It 
was  still  shouldering  the  sea  to  right  and  left  with  hiss 
of  lava  tongue  and  splash  of  cinder  shower.  We  could 
not  speak  for  alarmed  wonder,  and  mingling  with  mine 
there  was  deep  sorrow  over  Oomalefa  vanished.  What 
had  become  of  it  I  could  not  tell.  Thyriel  roused  her- 
self and,  divining  my  thoughts,  led  me  to  the  steps 
which  had  once  given  entrance  to  the  starry  portal. 
She  stooped  and  lifted  in  her  hand  some  of  what 
seemed  to  me  fine-sprinkled  snow,  that  covered  every 
inch  of  rock.  It  was  irelium  dust.  Once  the  cohesion 
of  the  great  edifice  had  been  overcome  by  the  shocks 
of  the  earthquake,  it  fell  not  into  fragments  or  huge 
blocks,   but  into   its  constituent  atoms.     Nothing,    I 


A  Catastrophe  157 

thought,   could  ever  replace   the  wondrous   palace  of 
delights  that  I  had  only  begun  to  know. 

I  felt  saddened  beyond  recovery,  as  we  turned  home- 
wards, over  the  ruin  of  such  magnificence  and  so  great 
hopes.  Thyriel's  dejection,  I  discovered,  was  retro- 
spective. She  mourned  over  the  failure  of  Leomarie, 
the  earthquake  art  of  her  family  and  friends.  They 
had  thought  that  they  could  anticipate  and  prevent  all 
the  grumblings  and  revolutions  of  Lilaroma,  and  this 
outbreak  had  shown  the  imperfection  of  their  know- 
ledge and  the  limits  of  their  art.  Though  but  a  novice, 
I  could  see  that  something  was  yet  wanting  to  make 
them  masters  of  the  crust  of  the  earth.  For  the  first 
time  for  many  generations  their  foresight  had  failed. 
They  had  known  that  there  was  disturbance  beneath 
the  mountain,  but  they  had  been  unable  to  fix  its 
centre,  which  was  far  out  at  sea.  The  inflow  of  the 
waters  had  baffled  the  power  of  their  mountain-cupping 
instruments,  and  the  rapidly  generated  steam  had  rent 
the  crust  in  the  line  of  Oomalefa;  and  until  the  slow- 
trickling  lavas  and  the  swift-belched  ashes  had  sealed 
the  lips  of  the  chasm  again,  there  was  danger,  they 
knew,  of  the  whole  island  exploding.  How  they  were 
to  prevent  or  even  anticipate  such  cataclysms  was  a 
problem  that  weighed  upon  every  member  of  the  family 
and  saddened  every  leisure  moment. 

For  some  days  the  Leomo  were  busy  with  the 
wreckage  of  the  outbreak.  I  was  attached  to  the  sec- 
tion that  had  to  inspect  the  lava  wells,  gauge  the 
amount  of  molten  matter  which  had  oozed  from  each, 
repair  every  clirolan  or  other  instrument  that  had  been 
deranged,  and  replace  those  submerged.  The  urgency 
of  the  occasion  excused  us  from  the  regular  duties  and 
pleasures  of  the  day.     All  our  ablutions  and  essential 


158  Limanora 

exercises  were  performed  in  the  private  mansions. 
Most  of  the  hours  not  spent  in  sleep  were  devoted  to 
the  tasks  made  for  us  by  the  new  exigency.  The 
excitement  removed  the  monotony  and  burden  of  the 
work,  and  almost  before  we  knew  that  there  was  so 
much  to  do  it  was  done.  New  wells  were  sunk  and 
new  clirolans  fixed  wherever  the  overflow  had  choked 
or  sealed  the  old.  The  instruments  of  even  the  most 
distant  section  of  the  island  were  put  into  their  best 
working  order.        • 

Then  we  were  free  to  scatter  to  the  winds  and  to  fol- 
low our  old  delights.  Thyriel  set  herself  with  renewed 
eagerness  to  teach  me  the  art  of  flight,  and  I  attained 
the  power  of  describing  an  easy  curve  from  a  shoulder 
of  Iyilaroma  down  to  the  plain.  Again  and  again  in 
her  new  desire  to  master  flight  with  me  seated  between 
her  wings,  she  carried  me  up  to  some  jutting  platform 
of  the  mountain:  and  then  she  showed  me  how  to  work 
the  wing-engine  with  ease.  I  could  keep  level  with 
my  starting-point  for  a  few  minutes,  but  after  that  I 
had  to  let  myself  glide  down  the  parabola  of  the  air.  I 
was  too  heavily  weighted  by  gravity  and  the  inertia  of 
ni)r  muscles  to  rise  as  she  did. 

There  were  many  secrets  of  their  flight  that  I  soon 
understood.  The  curious  construction  of  the  wings, 
formed  as  they  were  of  two  sliding  membranes,  I  have 
already  described.  What  I  had  taken  for  a  mere 
rudder  was  a  large  series  of  small  screws  that  gave 
forward  motion  to  the  flight.  The  engine  that  whirled 
them  round  as  they  churned  the  air  was  of  great 
power,  and  without  them  the  flight  would  have  been 
but  slow  and  clumsy.  It  was  through  inability  to 
manage  this  engine  that  I  was  so  long  in  mastering 
even  the  rudiments  of  the  art. 


A  Catastrophe  159 

I  progressed  greatly  that  day,  and  would  have  pro- 
gressed more  but  that  the  lesson  was  abruptly  broken 
off.  In  each  new  air  voyage  to  a  higher  sally-point 
she  bore  me  farther  round  the  mountain  towards  the 
great  plain  that  stretched  to  the  south.  When  we 
reached  our  last  flight  platform,  and  I  had  descended, 
my  glance  shot  over  the  countless  centres  of  industry 
and  investigation  that  stippled  the  rolling  downs.  It 
was  a  noble  sight,  and  I  could  have  long  rested  in  the 
gaze:  but  an  unwonted  gleam  drew  my  eyes  to  the 
precipitous  coast.  There  on  a  vast  new  promontory 
which  ran  out  miles  into  the  sea  was  gathered  such  a 
galaxy  of  jewelled  domes  rainbow-lit  by  the  sun  as  I 
could  not  have  conceived  even  from  my  remembrance 
of  Oomalefa  and  its  marvellous  architecture.  Thyriel's 
eyes  had  also  been  riveted  by  the  spectacle.  "It  is  a 
new  Oomalefa,"  she  burst  forth.  I  could  not  believe 
it ;  how  could  such  a  palace  of  wonders  be  reconstructed 
in  so  short  a  time?  There  were  onl)T  a  few  thousand 
mature  Limauorans;  and  if  they  had  been  all  engaged 
on  such  a  structure  night  and  day  it  would  have  taken 
many  busy  years  to  rear  it.  I  took  it  for  a  mere  illu- 
sion. The  position  of  the  sun  and  some  unusual  com- 
motion in  the  sea  had  produced  it  by  reflection  and 
refraction.  It  was  but  a  bubble  of  the  imagination 
bred  by  some  abnormality  in  our  eyes  upon  our  memory 
of  Oomalefa  and  the  grief  of  our  minds  at  its  evanish- 
ment. 

So  I  argued.  But  Thyriel  was  silently  decided  in 
her  dissent.  We  could  take  no  more  interest  in  our 
aeronautics,  nothing  could  keep  our  gaze  from  that 
radiant  orb  resting,  gigantic,  on  the  beach.  As  the 
sun  declined  the  facets  of  the  new  jewel  shimmered 
with  living  sheen :  now  it  was  a  city  of  burnished  gold, 


160  Limanora 

again  it  was  a  myriad  of  lambent  flames  aspiring  to  the 
centre  of  fire:  now  a  thousand  rainbows  weaving  and 
unweaving  themselves,  again  uncounted  stars  clustered 
and  heaped  in  restless  silver,  or  wintry  thistledown  of 
swarming  snow.  Surely  it  was  but  an  army  of  will-o'- 
the-wisps  lit  in  the  marsh  fumes  that  the  gaping  sea 
had  sent  forth.  Yet  as  I  gazed  it  grew  in  my  mind 
that  this  sparkling  halo  had  a  fixed  centre;  there  was 
symmetry  in  the  refulgence  and  in  the  recurrence  of 
colour  and  sheen.  It  could  not  be  illusion;  we  were 
both  transfixed  like  sculptures  in  eternal  gaze. 

The  flash  of  wings  broke  the  completeness  of  the 
glory  and  our  spell.  Above  the  transplendent  spec- 
tacle fluttered  a  snow-storm  of  ariels;  the  sun  shot  a 
fiery  gleam  through  a  rent  cloud,  and  across  his  .silvery 
beams  danced  and  played  these  winged  motes.  The 
beauty  of  the  sight  moved  us  almost  to  tears.  We 
knew  that  this  was  no  phantom  joy;  our  fellows  were 
aloft  in  the  air  hymning  the  glory  of  a  new  creation. 
Soon  Thyriel  had  persuaded  me  to  start  with  her 
towards  the  new  palace  of  wonders.  We  had  not  got 
half-way  when  I  felt  my  arms  weary  and  my  flight 
dragging  towards  the  plain.  She  would  not  leave  me 
to  trudge  across  the  uneven  earth;  before  I  could 
argue  she  had  me  safely  nestling  between  her  wings  as 
they  beat  the  air  upwards  from  the  low  knoll  on  which 
we  had  alighted.  She  no  longer  laboured  under  her 
burden,  as  she  had  done  in  her  first  attempt  some  days 
before;  yet  I  felt  that  she  grew  tired,  and  made  her 
land  upon  a  hill  a  few  miles  from  the  new  Oomalefa. 
After  a  rest  I  was  able  on  my  own  wings  to  curve  down 
towards  its  flight  of  new-rocked  steps  and  its  scintillant 
portal. 

We  entered,  and  all  was  joy  and  music.     Up  under- 


A  Catastrophe  161 

neath  the  new  domes  flitted  the  happy  artists  putting 
the  final  touches  on  the  tinted  translucence  of  the 
irelium  walls.  The  plan  was  more  elaborate  and  yet 
simpler  than  the  old  Oomalefa.  The  beauty  of  it  was 
more  overwhelming  to  the  imagination  of  the  eyes.  I 
could  not  have  couceived  two  structures  more  unlike 
from  their  larger  architecture  down  to  their  minutest 
detail  of  ornament,  and  yet  so  adapted  to  the  one  pur- 
pose. The  halls  of  medication  and  sustenance,  the 
galleries  of  the  magnetic  sense,  the  baths,  the  arcades, 
and  the  sea  balconies  were  all  complete,  yet  as  different 
from  those  that  had  gone  to  dust  as  Western  architec- 
ture from  Oriental.  New  instruments  and  apparatus, 
new  indexes  and  tests  were  there  at  work.  Not  a 
detail  had  been  neglected;  but  the  rocky  platforms 
over  the  sea  were  broader,  and  when  we  flew  into  the 
air  and  looked  at  it  from  above  we  could  see  that  the 
promontory  stretched  farther  into  the  sea  and  was 
broader  both  on  its  surface  and  at  its  base;  and 
strange  to  say,  it  had  as  its  outermost  point  the  new 
peak  that  the  eruption  had  thrown  up  in  the  ocean.  It 
was  conjectured  by  the  L,eomo,  I  soon  knew,  that  this 
line,  now  sealed  up  as  it  was  and  with  its  lava  vent  at 
its  outer  extremity,  would  be  freer  from  terrene  par- 
oxysms than  any  other  portion  of  the  island  marge. 
This  was  where  my  proparents  and  the  rest  of  the 
earth  artisans  had  been  engaged  so  busily  during  these 
days;  they  had  been  guiding  the  lava  flow  along  the 
line  of  rent  out  through  the  sea  to  the  great  beacon 
which  the  outburst  had  raised;  and  the  dash  of  the 
waves  had  cooled  and  congealed  each  layer  as  it  flowed 
and  curdled  from  the  new  peak  to  the  shore  of  the 
island. 


CHAPTER   XII 


OOI.OREPA 


BUT  by  what  magic  had  this  wondrous  jewel  group 
of  domes  and  spires  and  minarets  grown  upon  the 
platform  within  these  few  alternations  of  sun  and  dark  ? 
From  my  own  experience  of  bastioning  the  shore  I  was 
able  to  understand  the  rapidity  with  which  the  founda- 
tions had  been  laid.  My  wonder  grew  all  the  more  at 
the  marvellous  piece  of  art  that  now  stood  upon  them ; 
every  detail  was  so  complete  and  so  beautiful.  The 
giant  forest  aisle  of  Cologne  Cathedral,  the  mosaic 
splendour  that  had  overawed  me  within  St.  Peter's, 
the  statued  frost-work  of  Milan,  seemed  to  me  tawdry 
beside  the  colossal  domes  with  their  jewelled  magnifi- 
cence and  the  infinite  variety  in  simplicity  of  the  laby- 
rinth of  arcades  and  galleries  and  arches.  Yet  those 
were  the  fruits  of  a  thousand  years'  faith  and  work ; 
this  was  the  product  of  a  few  days.  The  more  I 
thought  of  it,  the  more  bewildered  I  was. 

Thyriel  divined  my  thoughts  and  saved  me  from  my 
perplexity.  "  You  have  never  seen  the  Ooloran,"  she 
exclaimed.  I  asked  her  what  it  was.  I  could  see  that 
the  word  might  be  translated  sonarchitect.  Her  de- 
scription of  it,  though  lucid  as  usual,  did  not  convey  to 
my  slow  thoughts  a  full  idea  of  the  instrument;  and 

162 


Oolorefa  16 


o 


we  got  permission  to  visit  Oolorefa,  or  the  hall  of  archi- 
tecture, the  following  day. 

In  the  multiplicity  of  wonders  throughout  Limanora 
I  had  failed  to  notice  this  great  edifice,  although  it 
stood  on  a  level,  symmetrically  cut  plateau,  command- 
ing all  the  region  in  which  were  gathered  most  of  the 
exceptionally  great  and  magnificent  structures  of  the 
island,  and  was  but  one  of  a  series  of  gleaming  palaces 
which  crowned  the  points  of  the  rocky  spurs  of  L,ila- 
roma.  In  each  palace  was  concentrated  some  one  of 
the  services  that  the  new  civilisation  had  to  offer  to  the 
progress  of  the  race.  I  had  visited  a  few  of  them,  and 
it  was  part  of  the  programme  of  my  education  to  make 
me  spend  such  space  and  time  in  each  as  the  desire  or 
the  necessity  arose  in  my  life;  but  it  had  never  struck 
me  to  inquire  how  the  marvellous  buildings  had  arisen. 
Nor,  though  I  had  noticed  the  frequent  change  of  out- 
ward shape  and  ornamentation  of  parts  of  the  mansion 
of  my  proparents,  had  I  ever  had  leisure  or  curiosity 
to  find  out  the  reason  or  source  of  the  transformations. 
It  was  delightful  to  see  the  growth  of  the  building  and 
to  remove  into  the  new  parts;  and  as  silently  and 
invisibly  the  sections  we  had  left  vanished.  I  had 
never  time  to  grow  tired  of  one  chamber  or  set  of 
chambers  before  another  was  ready  for  me.  It  was 
like  the  growth  of  a  palace  of  dreams;  but  I  soon  ac- 
cepted it  as  one  of  the  magic  habits  of  the  island,  a 
natural  feature  of  my  life,  never  rousing  query  and 
seldom  awakening  even  thought.  So  much  of  new 
and  striking  was  crowded  into  the  days  and  months 
and  years  that  large  portions  of  the  civilisation  had  to 
pass  uncommented  on  and  ultimately  unnoticed. 

With  the  same  wonder  with  which  in  later  life  we  be- 
gin to  watch  the  marvellous  workings  of  the  functions  of 


164  Limanora 

our  bodies  I  entered  on  my  new  investigation.  As  we 
approached  Oolorefa  it  seemed  to  me  that  we  had  made  a 
mistake  and  come  to  the  wrong  building;  for  it  rang 
with  the  most  entrancing  music  and  I  thought  that  it 
must  be  the  cathedral  of  the  island.  It  had  one  vast 
central  dome  surrounded  by  countless  cupolas,  and  as 
we  skirted  the  edifice  I  heard  underneath  each  of  these 
smaller  roofs  sweet  melodies  sounding  too  low  to  be 
heard  beyond  its  partition  walls  and  almost  drowned  in 
the  thunderous  diapason  of  the  central  dome.  These 
I  took  for  chapels  and  fanes  subsidiary  to  the  great 
temple,  round  which  they  clustered. 

We  entered  and  I  was  amazed  to  find  under  what  I 
had  thought  to  be  the  temple  of  the  island  a  great 
mansion,  but  dwarfed  by  the  height  and  size  of  the 
temple  roof.  The  fence  enclosing  it  had  just  been 
shaken  to  dust  by  their  new  electric  process  for  the 
atomising  of  irelium.  What  was  to  be  done  with 
the  new  structure  ?  It  was  walled  in  by  the  giant 
cupola,  and  could  not  possibly  be  removed.  The 
thought  was  beating  about  in  my  mind,  but  ceased 
before  a  sudden  crash;  I  looked  up  and  there,  one 
complete  and  evenly  cut  quadrant  of  the  dome  had 
vanished,  and  the  bright  sun  shone  in  undimmed  by 
any  medium.  I  again  noticed  something  going  on 
around  us.  Great  flanks  like  the  sides  of  a  ship  were 
fitted  to  the  bottom  of  the  new  building,  and  along 
them  underneath  were  adjusted  huge  floats.  Wings 
were  then  attached  to  either  side,  and  a  strong  wing- 
engine  was  placed  in  the  body  and  two  rudder-engines 
in  the  after-part  of  the  raft.  They  were  rapidly  charged 
with  electricity,  the  floats  were  exhausted  of  their 
heavier  air,  and  up  rose  the  whole  structure  through 
the  huge  aperture  in  the  dome;  and  I  could  see  its 


Oolorefa  165 

pilots  guide  it  this  way  and  that  through  the  air  to  fit 
the  unequal  and  varying  wind  that  blew,  till  at  last  it 
disappeared  round  a  shoulder  of  Lilaroma.  I  had  run 
out  of  Oolorefa  to  watch  the  flight  of  the  great  mansion 
on  its  aerial  raft,  and  when  it  went  out  of  sight  I  re- 
turned, reflecting  with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  this  ex- 
plained the  magic  growth  of  the  house  in  which  I  lived; 
the  additions  had  arrived  and  been  fixed  and  adapted 
to  the  purposes  of  human  habitation  while  I  was  sleep- 
ing or  absent  on  my  daily  pursuits. 

I  was  startled  when  I  got  back  to  find  the  dome  com- 
plete again  and  preparation  being  made  for  construct- 
ing some  other  irelium  shell.  The  fence-work  had 
been  raised.  By  its  wall  stood  the  key-board  of  a 
gigantic  organ-like  musical  instrument,  the  other  half 
of  which  was  so  arranged  within  the  new  framework 
that  the  whole  volume  of  its  sound  should  bear  upon 
whatever  the  fence  enclosed.  A  huge  bell  mouth 
opened  out  into  the  chamber;  and  I  soon  saw  that  out 
of  this  issued  a  snow-storm  of  irelium  particles  which 
floated  lightly  in  the  air.  A  peal  of  music  rang  out 
from  the  instrument,  and  I  saw  the  dust  motes  settle 
rapidly  into  a  symmetrical  figure,  that  minute  by 
minute  grew  into  a  gigantic  nautilus  shell.  The  musi- 
cian who  sat  at  the  key-board  watched  the  snow-whirl 
within  and  the  magical  rise  of  the  walls.  I  perceived 
that  the  bar  of  music  was  repeated  again  and  again, 
with  gradual  ingrafting  of  variation  as  the  shell-like 
walls  bent  over.  At  a  certain  point  where  the  whorl 
began  to  incurve  backwards  the  strain  completely 
changed  and  reminded  me  of  a  fugue.  Back  and  forth 
it  shot  its  monotonous  shuttle  of  sound.  I  was  spell- 
bound by  the  cradling  melody  and  the  sinuous  flexure 
of  the  vast  conch.     The  completion  of  the  process  and 


1 66  Limanora 

the  cessation  of  the  music  broke  the  spell,  and  I  pressed 
near  to  ask  explanations  and  to  see  the  result.  Some 
enchanter's  power  must  surely  have  drawn  in  the  float- 
ing particles  to  the  thin  curves  of  the  structure  and 
held  them  there;  for  the  motes  continued  to  float  un- 
attracted,  but  in  sparse  and  sparser  cloud;  and  at  last 
they  ceased  to  move,  and  settled  on  the  fence,  dimming 
its  translucence.  I  felt  the  metal  floor  grow  first  hotter 
and  hotter,  and  then  cooler  and  cooler  till  it  was  ice- 
cold.  Within  a  fraction  of  an  hour  the  whole  process 
was  complete;  the  fencing  walls  were  shaken  to  dust, 
and  there  stood  the  gigantic  nautilus  perfect  in  its  grace, 
clear  as  costal  but  for  the  frostwork  of  nautilus  pat- 
terns all  over  its  surface.  It  was  a  new  experiment  in 
form  for  a  winged  ship  of  the  air,  and  as  I  stood  the 
wings  were  added  and  the  engines  put  on  board.  The 
navigators  embarked;  a  smaller  quadrant  of  the  dome 
crashed  aside;  and  out  by  the  aperture  floated  this 
huge  air-bubble  rainbow-lustrous  in  the  sun. 

Thyriel  led  me  to  the  vacant  space  whence  the  air- 
ship had  been  launched;  and  there  I  was  shown  how 
powerful  magnets  made  the  snow-storm  sweep  so  rapidly 
downwards  and  held  the  irelium  dust  in  position,  once 
it  had  taken  shape.  Then  the  alternate  floors  were 
exhibited  to  me,  one  emanating  heat  which  melted  the 
new  structure  into  a  permanency,  and  another  that  re- 
duced the  temperature  below  freezing-point  and  com- 
pleted the  architectural  process  by  chilling  the  metal. 
There  were  other  floors  easy  of  substitution  by  means 
of  leverage  and  the  application  of  great  force;  as  one  was 
withdrawn,  another  was  run  into  its  place.  One  was 
suited  for  one  chemical  process,  another  for  another. 
A  second  set  were  for  applying  to  the  walls  of  the  new 
structure  different   forms  or  grades  of  electricity.     A 


Oolorefa  167 

third  set  could  infuse  into  them  various  kinds  of  con- 
creting fluids  to  make  them  cohere  when  the  heating 
and  chilling  process  was  likely  to  fail.  This  was  the 
great  Ooloran  that  I  had  come  to  see,  and  only  the 
most  skilled  musician  and  architect  was  allowed  to  sit 
down  at  the  key-board. 

In  order  to  show  me  the  part  that  music  took  in  this 
swift  architecture,  I  was  led  round  the  circle  of  sub- 
chapels,  that  I  had  seen  surrounding  the  great  dome. 
In  these  were  employed  the  various  draughtsmen  of 
Oolorefa.  In  the  first  we  entered  the  experimenter  was 
engaged  in  seeking  the  most  beautiful  form  for  a  new 
mansion  which  was  to  be  placed  up  amongst  the  snows 
of  Lilaroma;  it  would  have  to  withstand  great  gusts  of 
wind  and  at  times  heavy  drifts  of  snow;  it  would  also 
have  to  bear  a  variety  of  high  temperatures  within  in 
order  to  protect  the  dwellers  from  the  bitterness  of  the 
night.  The  building  was  meant  for  those  who  had  to 
watch  the  storm-cone  and  keep  it  in  perfect  working 
order.  The  draughtsman  was  using  a  miniature  Ool- 
oran, and  deftly  sounding  various  musical  notes,  and 
sometimes  songs  into  its  irelium  dust  whirlwind;  but 
there  was  always  one  predominating  note,  meant  to  in- 
troduce into  each  experiment  a  feature  that  had  been 
before  tested  and  found  suitable.  He  fixed  his  experi- 
ments by  means  of  his  small  movable  floors,  and  then 
placed  the  resulting  forms  in  order  along  a  shelf,  attach- 
ing to  each  the  score  of  music  which  had  produced  it. 
It  was  like  a  collection  of  toy  observatories.  Within 
a  neighbouring  compartment  of  like  transparent  walls 
another  artisan  submitted  each  of  the  models  to  the  in- 
fluences of  stress  and  strain,  of  heat  and  cold,  of  snow 
pressure  and  tornado  violence  that  the  ultimate  and 
full-sized  mansion  would  have  to  undergo.     One  sue- 


1 68  Limanora 

cumbed  to  the  heat,  another  to  the  severe  cold,  a  third 
to  an  avalanche  from  above,  a  fourth  to  a  gust  of  wind. 
He  marked  the  flaw  in  each  and  the  influence  that  had 
brought  it  out,  and  handed  the  model  back  to  the 
draughtsman,  who  at  once  corrected  the  note  or  notes 
in  the  score  of  music  which  symbolised  the  flaw. 
When  the  result  of  the  experimentation  was  complete, 
the  score  of  the  music  and  the  miniature  fabric  were 
sent  to  the  central  dome;  and  in  less  than  an  hour  the 
huge  mansion  was  on  its  winged  raft  speeding  towards 
its  destination  far  up  the  great  mountain-slope. 

I'was  led  through  the  whole  series  of  experimenting 
chapels;  in  each  was  there  a  miniature  sonarchitect  pro- 
ducing test  forms  for  special  purposes  under  the  skilled 
hands  of  creative  workmen  and  their  pupils.  In  most 
of  them  new  designs  were  being  produced  for  private 
houses;  for  of  these  was  needed  the  greatest  variety, 
as  each  islander  had  his  home  renewed  so  frequently. 
I  could  not  have  conceived  that  so  many  different 
forms  could  be  created  for  the  same  purpose;  indeed 
the  number  seemed  to  be  limited  only  by  the  possible 
combination  of  notes  of  music  and  the  need  of  adapting 
each  design  to  habitation  and  the  habits  of  the  dwell- 
ers. The  skill  of  the  artist  lay  in  the  selection  of  the 
proper  forms  out  of  the  multitude  he  daily  evolved,  and 
in  their  adaptation  to  the  necessities  of  Limanoran  life. 
It  was  in  these  designs  that  the  younger  members  of 
the  architect  families  were  engaged;  thus  they  learned 
their  art  and  developed  their  creative  instincts. 

Under  some  cupolas  which  we  visited  we  found  ex- 
periments on  new  designs  for  the  large  public  buildings, 
and  to  these  the  wisest  members  of  the  families  were 
applying  their  century-tried  skill.  As  we  approached 
any  such  chapel,  we  could  hear  the  most  elaborate  and 


Oolorefa  169 

entrancing  music,  for  the  design  in  such  cases  was 
labyrinthine,  and  needed  the  noblest  artistic  faculties 
to  select  and  develop  it.  The  executive  musical  talent 
displayed  and  the  talent  of  extemporaneous  composi- 
tion and  modification  would  have  been  called  genius  in 
European  communities;  but  this  people  had  no  word 
corresponding  to  the  quicksand  of  meaning  this  word 
covers  in  Christendom.  They  knew  the  origin  and 
growth  of  each  faculty,  even  when  except ionally  de- 
veloped, too  well  to  attribute  it  to  an  indefinable  some- 
thing which  nature  had  somehow  conferred  upon  a 
chance-chosen  individual.  They  knew  as  exactly  the 
causes  that  produced  given  effects  in  the  human  system 
as  they  could  calculate  the  forces  of  the  inanimate 
world,  and  had  no  belief  in  the  power  of  nature  to  give 
to  human  work  by  some  caprice  more  value  than  it 
deserved  and  that  deranged  all  calculation.  This 
criticism  I  brought  down  on  me  from  my  guide  when  I 
expressed  amazement  at  the  beauty  of  the  music  and  the 
resulting  design  in  one  chapel,  and  attempted  to  trans- 
late the  word  "genius"  into  Limanoran.  Such  ex- 
pressions, he  persuaded  me,  are  but  the  half-articulate 
escape-valves  of  wide-mouthed  ignorance;  they  mean 
no  more  than  a  confession  of  blindness  and  incapacity, 
and  should  be  rapidly  rejected  by  ever}'  progressive 
civilisation.  The  musical  and  designing  power  of  this 
particular  Limanoran  belonged  to  most  in  his  family 
of  his  own  age,  and  was  merely  the  stage  the  art  of 
sonarchitecture  had  reached  in  its  development  on  the 
island.  Wherever  a  nature  especially  adapted  to  the 
double  art  was  found  it  was  imported  into  the  family 
to  reinforce  it. 

In  spite  of  the  dissertation,  I  could  not  but  listen, 
entranced  by  the  intricate  splendour  of  the  music;  and 


1 70  Limanora 

my  eyes  were  riveted  on  the  growing  design  within 
the  receiver  of  the  Ooloran.  Yet  when  finished 
and  tested  it  was  found  inadequate  to  the  artist's  new 
conception  of  the  utilities  of  the  ultimate  edifice.  It 
was  shaken  again  into  dust  before  I  left  the  workman, 
and  its  faults  were  noted  and  corrected  in  the  score  of 
music  which  he  had  before  him.  He  had  been  years 
on  this  single  design,  which  he  had  been  moulding  and 
improving  every  day;  and  he  hoped  soon  to  find  a 
form  that  would  be  strikingly  new  and  in  every  feature 
adapted  to  the  purpose  of  the  building. 

I  could  well  understand  now  that  the  new  Oomalefa 
was  no  work  of  magic;  but  I  was  still  unable  to  see 
how  its  vast  proportions  could  have  been  shifted  from 
its  place  of  fabrication  to  its  ultimate  site.  Thyriel 
led  me  to  a  new  structure  which  had  just  issued  from 
the  central  sonarchitect;  and  the  master- workman  bade 
me  lean  upon  it;  huge  though  it  was,  it  shifted  before 
my  weight  and  I  fell.  It  was  as  light  as  if  made  of 
silk,  and  we  two  could  lift  it  from  the  floor.  This  ex- 
plained the  ease  of  rafting  the  great  edifices  through  the 
air;  but  how  did  they  resist  the  winds  that  blew,  or 
the  impact  of  wave  and  storm  ?  I  was  led  to  a  wall  of 
Oolorefa  itself;  and  I  was  bidden  to  raise  one  low 
parapet  of  it  ;  not  the  application  of  my  greatest 
strength  could  move  it.  My  guide  then  waved  what 
seemed  to  be  a  magnet  above  it,  and  bade  me  try  again ; 
it  rose  in  my  hands  and  my  muscular  effort  landed  me 
on  my  back.  He  showed  me  how  the  foundations  of 
their  buildings  were  powerful  magnets,  and  how  the 
fabric  would  be  torn  to  pieces  before  it  could  be  hoisted 
off  them  unless  an  equally  powerful  magnet  was  ap- 
plied in  another  direction.  I  now  understood  the 
strength  of  their    structures    before   winds    and    the 


Oolorefa  171 

rapid    disappearance    of    Oomalefa    after    the    earth- 
quake. 

But  I  had  seen  only  one  department  of  Oolorefa,  that 
which  consummated  the  work  of  the  rest.  One  branch 
of  the  sonarchitect  families  was  specially  charged  with 
experimentation  on  the  materials  for  building.  Ire- 
lium  was  the  general  name  for  the  metallic  combination 
of  elements  best  suited  to  the  state  of  civilisation  they 
had  reached;  but  there  were  innumerable  modifica- 
tions and  grades  of  it,  and  there  were  more  being 
discovered  every  day.  We  entered  one  magnificent 
building,  and  there  found  a  dozen  or  more  workmen, 
each  isolated  in  a  transparent  chamber  and  busy  with 
some  combination  of  irelium  and  one  or  other  of  the 
stellar  metals.  Every  star  or  series  of  stars  had  its 
own  predominant  and  characteristic  element  or  amal- 
gam of  elements;  and  it  was  a  main  duty  of  one 
of  the  chemical  families  of  the  island  to  examine  every 
star  for  its  new  element  and  to  find  something  cor- 
responding to  it  in  terrene  matter.  This  section  of 
the  people  studied  with  the  most  anxious  care  the  pro- 
ducts and  the  results  of  the  leomorans;  they  visited 
almost  hourly  the  mouths  of  the  lava  wells  and  watched 
the  spectroscopic  recorders  of  the  fumes  that  rose  out 
of  them;  for  they  seldom  failed  to  find  at  one  time  or 
another  some  constituent  of  the  interior  of  the  earth  cor- 
responding to  any  new  stellar  element  or  metal  recently 
discovered.  Whenever  it  was  found  in  any  leomoran 
a  chamber  for  its  deposition  was  constructed  and  the 
clirolan  was  specially  adapted  to  the  preservation  of 
all  of  it  that  issued  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
These  new  metallic  constituents  were  called  by  the 
name  of  the  stars  in  which  they  predominated,  and  were 
at  once  put  into  the  hands  of  the  sonarchitect  families 


172  Limanora 

to  be  tested  for  structural  utilities.  It  was  thus  irelium 
had  been  discovered,  and  thus  they  hoped  to  find  ma- 
terials still  more  plastic  to  their  purposes.  Already 
they  had  so  modified  their  new  metal  by  amalgamation 
with  other  stellar  metals  that  they  had  fitted  it  to  func- 
tions no  metal  had  served  before;  it  could  be  made 
flexible  or  tough,  light  or  heavy,  transparent  or  opaque, 
malleable  or  brittle,  soluble  before  heat  or  water  or 
electricity,  or  resisteut  to  any  or  all  of  them;  it  was 
difficult  to  say  what  quality  they  could  not  impart  to 
it;  and  here  I  could  see  the  workmen  testing  new  com- 
binations in  order  to  find  new  qualities  or  new  grades 
of  a  quality  already  found.  I  stood  and  watched  one 
who  was  trying  an  amalgam  of  a  new  stellar  metal 
called  vanelium  with  gold;  he  had  already  attempted 
to  combine  it  with  iron,  silver,  copper,  irelium,  and 
found  it  in  each  case  either  impossible  or  useless;  but 
the  reactions  had  pointed  him  to  gold  as  its  natural 
ally;  and  now,  having  found  the  two  combine  with 
ease,  he  was  exhausting  the  various  possibilities  of 
combination  in  different  proportions,  and  after  submit- 
ting the  new  amalgam  to  his  tests,  was  recording  the 
results.  It  gave  a  marvellous  toughness  and  elasticity 
to  gold,  so  that,  when  beaten  thin  enough  for  a  breath 
to  raise  it  in  the  air,  it  could  not  be  torn  except  by 
sudden  and  great  mechanical  force.  Another  workman 
near  him  was  testing  the  effect  of  electricity  on  the 
various  grades  of  the  new  amalgam  and  recording  the 
results  minutely.  In  each  of  the  crystal  chambers 
there  were  at  hand  supplies  of  all  the  forms  of  energy 
that  might  be  needed,  such  as  heat,  cold,  pressure, 
electricity.  Each  workman  was  isolated  in  order  that 
the  elements  he  used  might  not  interfere  with  the  ex- 
periments of  his   neighbour;    but    his   workshop  was 


Oolorefa  1 73 

transparent,  that  he  might  beckon  for  help  at  any  mo- 
ment, or  exhibit  to  his  fellows  the  result  of  any  experi- 
ment without  modifying  the  conditions  or  breaking  the 
continuity. 

A  third  branch  of  these  families  dealt  with  the 
adaptation  of  the  new  amalgams  to  the  various  struc- 
tural necessities  of  the  community;  they  found  out 
which  form  or  grade  would  resist  the  disintegrating 
influence  or  the  power  of  water  or  of  electric  force; 
they  tested  what  shape  would  best  suit  each  grade, 
solid  or  hollow,  cylindrical  or  spheral,  cubic  or  rec- 
tangular, thin  or  thick,  curved  or  rectilinear.  Another 
branch  devoted  itself  to  the  means  of  making  the 
various  metals  or  amalgams  cohere  either  temporarily 
or  permanently.  A  fifth  studied  the  adaptation  of  the 
new  discoveries  to  tools  and  machines  and  to  the  in- 
vention of  new  mechanical  forms  that  would  bring  out 
their  greatest  utilities.  To  go  through  all  the  depart- 
ments of  this  vast  architectural  workshop  would  need 
a  week's  rehearsal.  To  my  first  view  it  seemed  be- 
wildering in  its  complexity  of  specialisation;  but  after 
closer  acquaintance  it  became  simplicity  itself,  in  fact 
the  only  plan  that  nature  itself  could  have  pointed  out. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE   LILARAN 


HAVING  finished  our  survey  of  Oolorefa,  my  mind 
returned  to  the  observatory  for  L,ilaroma,  which 
I  had  seen  growing  in  miniature  under  the  modeller's 
hand  and  music.  It  seemed  to  me  a  strange  romance 
that  citizens  of  this  beautiful  island  lived  amid  ever- 
lasting snow  and  ice  tens  of  thousands  of  feet  above 
their  fellows.  How  could  those  who  were  accustomed 
to  the  conditions  and  privileges  I  saw  around  me  bring 
themselves  to  surrender  it  all  and  live  the  lives  of 
hermits  amid  antarctic  rigours?  Thyriel  reminded  me 
of  the  glacial  cold  of  the  southern  land  from  which 
their  ancestry  had  come;  but  this  did  not  wholly 
satisfy  me.  The  long  centuries  of  life  in  a  new  zone 
had  changed  their  powers  and  tastes,  and  it  must  be  a 
great  sacrifice  to  live  in  a  climate  so  different  as  was 
the  glacier  region  of  a  mountain.  My  curiosity  was 
roused,  and  I  resolved  to  observe  and  know  for  myself 
at  the  earliest  opportunity.  I  could  .see  the  observa- 
tory now  perched  on  the  gleaming  shoulder  of  the 
mountain  above  the  circle  of  the  storm-cone,  and  every 
day  I  turned  my  eyes  upwards  I  grew  more  eager  to 
inquire  into  the  conditions  of  life  in  so  different  a 
temperature. 

i74 


The  Lilaran  175 

It  happened  that  the  next  department  of  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  island  that  had  to  be  studied  by  me  in  our 
educational  development  was  Lilarie,  or  the  science  of 
island-security.     We  were  handed  over  to  one  who  be- 
longed to  the  Lilamo,  or  families  specially  absorbed  in 
this  section  of  practical  knowledge,  and  were  told  to 
choose  our  mode  of  ascent,  car  flight  or  wing  flight, 
or  either  of  the  two  instantaneous  methods  of  transit. 
We  preferred  one  of  the  two  last,  so  he  decided  on  the 
wire-line  or  aerial   method  for  our  first  ascent.     We 
were  enclosed  in  a  casing,  shaped  like  a  shuttle  and 
rounded  and  sharpened  to  a  point  at  each  end;  it  lay 
slightly  inclined  on  a  close  web  of  wires,  which  sloped 
up  to  the  mountain-top.     The  door  was  closed  and 
made  secure,  but,  as  our  shuttle  car  was  made  of  trans- 
parent irelium,  we  could  see  on  all  sides.     It  was  then 
drawn  slightly  upwards  into  a  complete  enclosure  of 
wires,  each  of  which  touched  it  at  some  point.     When 
our  guide  saw  that  we  were  all  ready,  he  pressed  a 
button,  and  we  shot  up  at  incredible  speed.     The  whole 
sky  and  earth  and  sea  fell  from  us  in  an  instant.     I 
closed  my  eyes  in  alarm.     No  sooner  had  I  done  so 
than  the  whizzing  sound  which  accompanied  our  flight 
ceased  and  in  a  moment  we  were  at  our  destination, 
close  to  the  peak  of  Lilaroma.     Our  shuttle  car  slid 
into  another  groove  and  rested;  the  door  opened,  and 
I  stood  amid  the  eternal  snows.     I  could  see  the  great 
buildings   of    Rimla  and  Oomalefa  and  Oolorefa  like 
minute   soap-bubbles  gleaming  in  the  sun  far  below. 
We  had  travelled  these  tens  of  thousands  of  feet  with 
the  ease  and  swiftness  of  lightning;  for  it  had  indeed 
been  the  lightning  that  had  borne  us  up.     Along  this 
cylinder  of  wires  so  great  an  electric  power  could  be 
sent  that  it  seemed  to  undo  the  force  of  gravitation. 


1 76  Limanora 

Distance  was  almost  annihilated  by  this  mode  of  transit. 
It  outdistanced  sound,  if  not  light  too,  in  its  magic 
motion. 

As  soon  as  I  began  to  reflect,  I  was  astounded  to 
find  the  cold  not  merely  bearable,  but  deprived  of  its 
bitter  penetrativeness.  My  heart  bounded  with  ex- 
hilaration; ever}^  tissue  of  my  body  seemed  elastic  and 
full  of  spring.  I  could  account  for  these  sensations  bjr 
the  atmosphere  of  these  heights,  but  how  was  I  to 
explain  the  mild  temperature  of  this  snow  region  ? 
When  puzzling  over  the  problem,  I  began  to  notice  a 
haze  of  half-glowing  light  like  the  shimmer  of  heat 
over  the  surface  of  the  earth  at  blazing  noon.  It 
seemed  at  first  to  be  an  optical  illusion  coming,  I 
thought,  from  the  suddenness  of  my  transference  from 
the  plain  to  such  a  height,  but  its  unsteady  gleam 
moved  so  uniformly  that  I  soon  saw  it  was  outside  of 
me.  Yet  it  did  not  intercept  my  view  of  the  snow  and 
ice  around.  They  fascinated  me  b)^  their  splendour  of 
whiteness,  but  there  was  a  warmth,  a  pallid  glow  over 
them  that  was  quite  unwonted.  Our  guide  felt  my 
mental  interrogation,  and  pointed  out  that  we  had 
stepped  from  the  shuttle  car  on  to  a  movable  platform, 
which  would  soon  bring  us  to  the  observatory;  over 
this  platform  was  an  electric  covering,  that  protected 
us  from  the  outer  air  and  radiated  heat  in  all  direc- 
tions. He  showed  us  the  snow  melting  on  all  sides  of 
our  platform  in  form  corresponding  to  it,  and,  as  it 
moved  along  the  steep,  the  dark  honeycombed  square 
of  snow  moved  with  us.  There  was  above  and  on 
every  side  of  us  an  electric  field  produced  by  unseen 
circuits  of  wires;  and  these  fields  gave  out  heat  falling 
short  of  light. 

This    was   how    they   modified   the   climate    up   in 


The  Lilaran  177 

these  glacial   regions  and  made  it  even  sweeter  and 
healthier  than  the  purified   atmosphere  of  the  Lima- 
noran  plateaux  below.     They  had  done  much  for  the 
climate  of  the  lower  levels;  by  daily  casting  their  elec- 
tric shuttles  through  the  atmosphere  they  brought  its 
impurities  to  the  earth,  its  particles  of  dust  and  minute 
living  organisms;  but  as  more  of  these  crowded  in  again 
from  the  outlying  regions  of  air,  the  electric  shuttles 
would  have  to  ply  ceaselessly  in  all  directions  in  order 
to   keep  the   lower  strata  pure.     In    those   mountain 
altitudes  the  air  was  naturally  sterilised  to  a  large  ex- 
tent; few  organisms  could  persist  in  so  keen  a  medium; 
and  the   constant  use  of  electric   walls   and  roof  for 
modifying  the  bitterness  of  the  cold  swept  every  trace 
of  bacterial  life  into  the  snow.     Hence  the  purity  of 
the  air  we  breathed  up  there  and  the  buoyancy  of  the 
soul.     The  body  seemed  no  clog  upon   the  spiritual 
functions,    and    the   magnetism    that   came   from    the 
heavenly  bodies  uniting  with  that  of  the  earth  had  free 
play  upon  our  minds,  stimulating  them  to  lofty  flight. 
I  no  longer  wondered  why  the  Lilamo  had  no  aver- 
sion to  life  at  this  altitude.     They  passionately  loved 
it.     It  was,  indeed,  being  drunk  without  wine,  without 
self-abandonment,  without  waste  of  tissue. 

They  kept  strict  rein  on  this  intoxication,  ethereal 
though  it  was;  for,  like  all  their  race,  they  had 
severe  practical  issues  before  them.  Dailv  each  of 
them  returned  to  the  less  volatile  and  less  pure  air  of 
the  lower  levels  in  order  to  check  excess  of  buoyancy 
and  to  reinforce  the  graver  purposes  of  life  by  consulta- 
tion with  the  elders  and  wise  men.  They  had  in  their 
hands  an  important  phase  of  the  well-being  and  con- 
tinuance of  their  race.  They  had  all  the  foes  of  human 
life,  as  it  existed  amongst  the  Limauorans,  to  fight  off, 


178  Limanora 

whether  seen  or  unseen.  The  tornadoes  that  swept 
across  these  subtropical  regions,  the  climatic  strata 
that  drifted  from  other  lands  or  realms  of  space,  the 
bacterial  swarms  bringing  plague  in  their  train,  the 
lower-planed  human  life  which  might  swoop  down  on 
their  shores  from  the  archipelago  around  them, — all 
these  had  to  be  watched  and  directed  past  Limanora. 
Any  one  of  these  evils  might  in  a  few  hours  or  da3rs 
sweep  out  the  civilisation  that  had  taken  long  centuries 
to  develop  and  leave  them  all  their  steps  to  retrace. 
Eye-tense  vigilance  was  needed  to  watch  for  any  sign 
of  their  approach,  and  the  keenest  invention  to  prevent 
their  advance  when  observed. 

I  had  not  long  to  wait  for  evidences  of  the  great  ser- 
vices the  Lilamo  did  to  their  country.  Thyriel  and  I 
were  led  by  our  guide  into  the  various  divisions  of  the 
observatory.  We  inspected  the  innumerable  testing 
and  controlling  machines  without  fully  understanding 
their  intricate  and  often  subtle  arrangements.  Had 
we  not  been  acquainted  with  Rimla  and  Oomalefa 
and  Oolorefa,  we  should  have  been  bewildered  or  even 
awestruck.  As  it  was  we  were  amazed  at  the  refine- 
ment of  purpose  in  the  apparatus,  approaching  almost 
to  human  intelligence;  but  we  saw  that  a  mere  novice 
would  have  deranged  most  of  it,  so  nice  were  the  ad- 
justments. 

Our  attention  had  been  especially  arrested  by  the 
electric  indicator  or  tremolan.  It  contained  a  complete 
chart  of  the  electric  variations  of  every  point  of  the 
island  throughout  every  day  in  the  year.  This  had 
been  compiled  and  drawn  up  from  the  observations  of 
several  centuries,  and  marked  the  differences  between 
periodical  and  temporary,  regional  and  narrowly  local, 
terrestrial  and  planetary  variations.     Every  day  the  in- 


The  Lilaran  179 

strument  was  set  like  a  clock  to  all  the  electric  changes 
which  they  expected  to  occur  periodically  on  that  day. 
Each  of  these,  indicated  at  every  point  of  the  map,  re- 
presented an  electrically  uniform  locality  of  the  island 
with  which  it  was  connected.     The  superintendent  of 
the  tremolan  for  any  section  of  the  day  specially  studied 
all  the  unclassified  variations  which  had  occurred  at  the 
corresponding  hour  of  the  same  day  and  period  of  time.  ■ 
He  knew  every  change  in  the  position  of  the  earth  or 
in  the  movements  of  the  stars  that  might  affect  the 
electricity  of  the  atmosphere  at  any  moment  during  his 
watch.     Along  with  him  there  was  a  sky- watcher,  who 
used  one  of  their  marvellous  reducers  of  distance  and 
magnifiers  to  scan  the  sky  and  the  whole  horizon,  and 
reported  every  new  appearance  which  broke  the  uni- 
formity of  the  sky-line.     In  an  adjoining  chamber  with 
transparent  partitions  a  third  observer  was  stationed 
with  his  ear  at  a  makro-mikrakoust  or  vamolan,  that 
gathered  in  the  slightest  sounds  at  the  distance  of  even 
hundreds  of  miles  and  magnified  them  for  the  listening 
sense  applied  to  it;  it  also  indicated  approximately  the 
distance  of  the  source  of  the  sound  by  an  automatic 
calculator.     This   was   a   kind   of    eavesdropper   that 
could  pick  up  whispers  on  the  orb  of  the  earth,  just  as 
their  astronomical  instruments  could  catch  the  faintest 
gleam  in  space  myriads  of  miles  beyond  the  scope  of  the 
eye.      In    another    crystal-walled   apartment   stood    a 
fourth   watcher,   who   used    an   instrument   that    was 
to   his   electric    sense   what   the   telescope   is    to   the 
eye  and  their  vamolan  was  to  their  ear.     With  this 
idrolan  he   swept   the   sky  for   new   and   unclassified 
electric   impulses;    and  the  faintest  and   most  distant 
indication,  quite  unrecognisable  by  his  unaided  sense, 
was    magnified  ten  thousand-fold;   at  the  same  time 


180  Limanora 

the  distance  of  the  source  was  roughly  measured  and 
indicated. 

This  was  by  far  the  most  attractive  group  of  chambers 
for  us.  Not  only  could  we  test  the  wonderful  instru- 
ments for  ourselves;  but  we  could  examine  by  aid  of 
magnifiers  the  graphic  results  of  their  observations 
automatically  recorded  as  if  by  photography.  We 
could  minutely  study  the  .flight  of  sea  birds  not  visible 
to  the  naked  eye.  The  babel  of  sounds  that  went  on 
in  the  cities  of  the  archipelago  quite  beneath  the  hori- 
zon we  could  hear  like  a  great  roar  beside  us  when  we 
placed  the  sonoscripts  in  the  sound-magnifier;  and  with 
the  aid  of  its  analyst  we  could  unravel  the  sounds  by 
repeating  them  slowly.  Though  I  had  not  my 
electric  sense  sufficiently  developed  to  feel  the  differ- 
ences in  the  starry  impulses  when  the  electrographs 
were  placed  in  the  electro-magnifier,  I  could  distin- 
guish their  differing  degrees  of  force,  and  I  could  see 
how  much  Thy  riel  appreciated  the  fine  shades  of  variety 
in  the  impulses. 

We  were  engaged  in  testing  the  electric  records,  when 
we  could  see  the  observer  of  the  tremolan  bustling  from 
table  to  table  and  map  to  map,  whilst  his  pupil  watched 
the  indicator.  His  excitement  spread  into  the  adjoin- 
ing chambers,  and  their  occupants,  leaving  their  instru- 
ments to  assistants,  came  to  his  aid.  There  was  an 
inexplicable  electric  disturbance  on  the  north-east 
shore  of  the  island;  the  field  in  that  direction  was 
agitated.  They  ran  to  the  idrolan  and  turned  it  to  the 
north-east;  at  once  they  knew  that  some  seven  or  eight 
hundred  miles  off  there  was  advancing  at  a  rapid  rate  a 
great  wave  of  electric  disturbance.  We  all  recognised 
a  growing  sultriness  of  heat  in  the  profound  calm  of 
the  atmosphere  even  at  those  icy  heights.     No  time 


The  Lilaran  181 

was  to  be  lost.  All  the  members  of  the  Ulamo  were 
called  up,  and  in  a  few  minutes  were  assembled  in  the 
observatory. 

It  was  resolved  to  turn  the  whole  force  available  in 
the  island  into  the  storm-cone,  and  especially  into  that 
part  of  it  which  could  shoot  masses  and  streamers  of 
electric  energy  out  to  great  distances  in  the  atmo- 
sphere. Other  indications  of  an  approaching  tornado 
soon  appeared.  The  great  telescope  discovered  a  vast 
cloud  of  birds  on  the  horizon,  and  the  sea  greatly 
agitated  by  shoals  of  fish  beneath  them.  The  vamolan 
analysed  the  sounds  made  by  the  birds  and  revealed 
that  they  were  not  all  of  one  species;  sea  birds  small 
and  great  were  predominant;  but  there  was  no  lack  of 
land  birds,  insect-eaters  chiefly,  and  a  few  great  flesh- 
eaters,  vultures,  hawks,  and  falcons.  The  Lilamo 
knew  in  a  moment  what  this  meant.  Myriads  of 
microbes  were  afloat  in  the  air  in  front  of  the  storm, 
and  the  sky  in  the  van  of  the  cloud  of  birds  was 
obscured  by  the  mass  of  insect  life  battening  on  the 
unseen  plague.  The  fish  had  gathered  to  eat  the 
clotted  life  that  dropped  into  the  ocean,  and  the  sea 
birds  had  assembled  in  pursuit  of  the  fish.  It  was  a 
striking  sight,  this  great  moving  internecine  slaughter 
and  feast.  Seated  at  a  clevamolan,  or  combination  of 
telescope  and  makrakoust,  we  were  present  at  the 
scene,  though  hundreds  of  miles  off.  We  could  see 
the  swoop  of  the  vultures  down  on  the  land  birds,  too 
busy  with  their  banquet  of  insects  to  foresee  their  own 
fate,  the  water  boiling  with  the  leap  of  the  fish  and  the 
dive  of  the  sea  birds,  and  the  air  turbid  with  the  flash 
and  glimmer  of  wings;  at  the  same  time  we  could  hear 
the  war  of  jubilance  and  dismay,  the  wild  cry  of  fore- 
tasting appetite,  and  the  still  wilder  death-shriek;  and 


1 82  Limanora 

round  and  through  the  clangour  like  an  atmosphere 
moved  the  dull  hum  of  happy  glutted  insect  life.  It 
sickened  us  and  we  had  to  cover  our  eyes  and  ears  to 
shut  out  the  carnage.  We  had  forgotten  that  we  had 
been  using  the  clevamolan,  and  were  glad  to  find  that 
we  could  leave  it  and  return  to  the  ordinary  powers  of 
our  senses;  there  was  a  speck  on  the  horizon,  which 
might  be  a  boat  at  sea  for  anything  our  eyes  could 
make  out;  whilst  to  our  hearing  there  was  the  pro- 
fonudest  calm. 

Everything  was  ready  for  the  concentration  of  our 
millions  of  horse-power  in  the  direction  of  the  north- 
east, when  a  new  but  by  no  means  unexpected  phase 
of  the  phenomenon  occurred.  Word  came  up  from  the 
north-east  shore  that  a  plague  had  broken  out  amongst 
the  dwellers  in  the  district,  and  that  the  medical  wise 
men  had  been  summoned  to  their  help.  The  IJlamo 
had  already  given  warning  that  something  of  this  kind 
might  be  expected  in  that  quarter,  and  the  physicians 
were  by  this  time  removing  all  the  L,imanorans  in  the 
north-east  to  Oomalefa.  So  dense  a  cloud  of  insects 
was  not  there  without  the  attraction  of  superfluous 
bacterial  life.  Not  always  was  a  tornado  thus  heralded 
and  vanguarded  by  a  winged  army,  but  when  it  was, 
it  meant  the  migration  under  magnetic  impulse  of 
clirolanic  plague:swarms  from  some  favourite  breeding 
area. 

As  soon  as  it  was  thus  known  that  the  bacterial 
couriers  of  the  storm  had  reached  the  shores  of  Lima- 
nora, the  electric  forces  of  the  lilaran  were  brought 
into  play,  and  we  could  see  lightnings  belch  forth  which 
seemed  to  make  the  north-east  atmosphere  and  ocean 
glow.  Swiftly  the  shoals  of  fish  were  gathered  close  to 
the  bastions  of  the  coast,  for  masses  of  insects  were  fall- 


The  Lilaran  18 


j 


ing  every  moment  into  the  water.  Soon  we  could  see 
our  lightnings  reach  as  far  as  the  insect  darkness  and 
the  bird  cloud.  The  air  cleared  and  the  surface  of  the 
sea  was  covered  with  death.  Away  to  the  west  screamed 
and  shrieked  the  survivors  of  the  winged  army.  Then 
could  we  see  the  pitchy  midnight  of  the  coming  tempest 
moving  stealthily  towards  us;  and  its  heralds  howled 
and  shrieked  through  every  crevice  of  our  mansion. 
It  was  bearing  right  on  Lilaroma. 

How  could  that  battering-ram  of  heaven's  fury  be 
turned  aside  or  evaded  ?  It  seemed  to  me  that  nothing 
but  death  and  destruction  were  before  us.  I  had  al- 
ready seen  a  tropical  cyclone  level  a  gigantic  forest 
clean  as  a  mower  would  clear  his  swath  in  his  breast- 
high  corn.  What  could  man  do  in  presence  of  so  ter- 
rific a  force  but  hide  in  holes  of  the  rocks?  The 
thought  of  those  noble  buildings  levelled  with  the  dust 
mingled  sadness  with  my  fear  and  shook  all  cowardice 
from  it.  What  was  the  immolation  of  animal  exist- 
ence which  I  had  just  witnessed  compared  to  the  de- 
struction of  all  this  people  had  done?  I  felt  as  if  the 
torch  of  the  world's  salvation  were  about  to  be  extin- 
guished. 

There  was  no  sadness  or  languid  inaction  of  despair 
about  the  other  inmates  of  the  observatory.  All  was 
bustle  and  joyous  effort  for  a  time  as  in  veterans  quiver- 
ing with  the  passion  of  battle.  Every  man  had  his 
duty  and  place;  and  every  woman  was  there,  too,  in  the 
ranks  of  champions.  We  could  now  see  the  nucleus 
of  the  storm  just  above  the  horizon,  a  mass  raven-black. 
At  once  the  whole  power  of  the  island  was  concen- 
trated in  the  electric  charge  of  the  lilaran ;  and  a  long 
tongue  of  flame  shot  straight  for  the  dense  cloud.  As 
if  by  magic  the  whole  atmosphere  was  in  a  moment 


184  Limanora 

ablaze  with  lightnings.  The  sea  was  cloven  into  bil- 
lows of  raging  foam,  and  seemed  itself  to  aid  in  the 
hellish  pyrotechny.  It  shot  forth  great  tongues  of 
purple  flame,  yet  fled  with  reared  crest  from  the  strokes 
of  the  storm-flail.  Slowly  the  lilaran  moved  its  light- 
ning-thrust away  to  the  east.  Then  half  the  island 
power  was  put  into  the  blast  of  the  storm-cone;  and 
we  could  see  the  war  of  elements  and  the  thunderous 
scowl  of  the  tempest  shift  round  the  circle  of  the  hori- 
zon, instead  of  bearing  clown  on  us.  For  hours  the 
roar  of  the  lilaran  went  on.  The  edge  of  the  tornado 
struck  us,  and  the  building  shook  and  swayed.  Hail 
pelted  its  sides;  rain  and  snow  blinded  our  outlook; 
we  could  see  not  one  inch  outside  for  the  gloom.  Yet 
within,  all  was  radiant  and  calm.  They  knew  that  the 
centre  of  the  tornado  had  passed  many  miles  to  the 
east,  and  that  its  trailing  skirts  could  do  no  harm  to 
anything  in  the  island.  Even  if  it  had  come  straight 
on  Lilaroma,  they  had  given  a  vent  to  its  fury  so  many 
leagues  out  to  sea  that  its  force  would  have  been  largely 
spent  before  it  reached  the  shore.  It  was  a  yearly 
occurrence,  this  throttling  of  a  tornado  from  the 
tropics;  for  these  great  electric  disturbances  made 
straight  for  the  loftiest  peak  within  their  reach,  drawn 
by  their  polar  complement,  the  masses  of  electric 
energy  which  played  within  the  heart  of  Lilaroma. 

One  of  the  ordinary  duties  of  the  L,ilamo  was  to  milk 
the  great  mountain  of  its  electricity,  in  order  that  it 
should  offer  less  attraction  to  cloud  and  storm.  Every 
night,  especially  during  the  season  of  tempests,  I  could 
hear  the  roar  of  the  energy  out  of  the  earth,  and,  if  I 
looked  up  to  the  shoulders  of  the  mountain,  I  could 
see  at  a  hundred  points  the  purple  streamers  flicker  in 
the  wind  like  living,    moving   flame-flowers  growing 


The  Lilaran  185 

out  of  the  soil.  When  needed,  this  escaping  energy 
was  collected  and  sent  down  to  Rimla  for  storage  and 
was  another  of  the  numerous  sources  of  power  that  that 
treasury  of  force  drew  upon. 

When  the  tornado  had  passed  and  left  its  huge  con- 
tribution to  the  snows  of  the  peak,  the  lilaran  was 
stopped,  and  the  electric  energy  used  in  it  was  rapidly 
run  over  the  white  slopes  that  now  obliterated  every 
trace  of  the  great  groove  and  railway  on  which  the 
storm-cone  moved.  In  a  few  minutes  the  outline  ap- 
peared, and  soon  the  whole  circlet  was  cleared  of  its 
encumbering  snows.  So  the  weight  that  pressed  on 
the  roofs  of  the  observatory  and  the  drifts  that  kept  the 
light  from  its  walls  melted  before  the  electric  snow- 
plough.  The  storm  had  not  vanished  an  hour  before 
all  on  the  peak  of  Lilaroma  was  as  it  had  been  when 
we  arrived,  except  for  the  greater  purity  of  the  snow 
on  its  shoulders.  Beneath,  the  brush  of  the  tempest 
had  swept  out  all  traces  of  the  plague  that  the  physi- 
cians had  not  got  rid  of,  and  the  atmosphere  was 
clearer  and  more  exhilarating. 

So  calmly  and  fearlessly  had  the  whole  danger  been 
met  that  there  had  even  been  leisure  in  the  midst  of  the 
turmoil  to  discuss  this  great  waste  of  natural  power. 
It  took  them  as  many  days  as  the  tornado  lasted  hours 
to  generate  and  store  in  Rimla  all  this  energy  which 
was  now  falling  useless,  or  rather  mischievous,  upon 
the  face  of  the  ocean.  Could  they  not  yoke  the  cyclone 
as  they  had  yoked  the  billows  and  the  winds,  the  rivers 
and  the  snows,  the  lightnings  and  the  central  fires  of 
the  earth  ?  There  was  nothing  impossible  to  a  peo- 
ple who  had  tamed  the  raging  of  the  volcano  and  the 
earthquake.  The  difficulty  was  the  very  greatness  of 
the  force.     Any  machinery  they  might  erect  would  be 


1 86  Limanora 

trampled  to  pieces  by  the  brute  power  of  the  giant 
they  yoked.  Here  was  a  problem  worthy  of  their 
most  imaginative  men,  of  their  most  inventive  faculties. 

Not  a  year  had  passed  before  a  trial  was  made,  and 
within  a  decade  the  machinery  was  complete  for  storing 
the  energy  of  the  tempests.  An  immense  cave  was 
hollowed  out  in  the  rocks  of  L,ilaroma,  and  its  mouth 
was  extended  out  into  the  ocean  for  miles  by  means  of 
lava  bastions.  In  it  was  placed  enough  of  the  alloy 
called  labramor,  orelectricit)'  sponge,  to  take  in  trillions 
of  horse-power  of  electric  force.  At  first  cables  con- 
taining millions  of  wires  were  floated  out  towards  the 
coming  tornado  and  electric  fields  were  raised  in  the  air 
to  tap  the  energy  of  the  blackness.  This  was  con- 
tinued afterwards  to  some  extent;  but  it  was  found 
that,  if  only  the  clouds  were  electrically  tapped,  most 
of  the  current  transmitted  itself  to  the  receivers  in  the 
cave  by  means  of  the  water  of  the  ocean.  It  was  thus 
unnecessary  to  float  out  towards  the  storm  more  than 
one  cable,  so  binding  to  the  shore  a  great  raft  which  held 
up  many  labrolans  or  electricity  milkers  towards  the 
blackening  sky.  They  acknowledged  that  they  lost  by 
this  water-transmission  much  of  the  energy  emitted 
from  the  clouds;  for  the  ocean  bore  it  away  in  all  direc- 
tions; but  they  got  as  much  of  it  as  they  needed  to 
fill  their  storehouse,  and  they  killed  the  cloud  monster; 
at  least  it  floated  away  across  the  horizon  blowing  a 
mere  gale  that  could  do  no  havoc  except  upon  the 
careless  and  unforethinking. 

One  of  the  most  singular  effects  of  this  new  contriv- 
ance was  to  rid  the  sea  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
island  of  its  teeming  life  and  to  precipitate  to  the  bot- 
tom the  matter  that  floated  in  the  water.  For  weeks 
after,  we  could  see  the  rocks  or  streaming  weeds  in  the 


The  Lilaran  187 

depths  as  clearly  as  if  it  were  an  ocean  of  air.  Its 
emerald  or  aznre  had  vanished,  and  white  light  poured 
down  into  the  hitherto  unfathotned  hollows  and  val- 
leys. There  could  we  see  the  dead  denizens  sway  idly 
with  the  forests  of  marine  vegetation  and  here  and 
there  the  bulk  of  some  monster  lay  tangled  in  the  herb- 
age. Only  by  degrees  and  after  some  months  did  the 
colour  and  opacity  return  to  the  waves  and  the  myriad 
life  stream  from  other  regions  into  the  void.  The  cur- 
rents that  swept  past  the  coasts  bore  down  the  sus- 
pended particles  from  other  seas;  and  with  them  came 
new  fish  and  their  parasites. 

Until  these  came  a  new  danger  to  the  health  of  L,irn- 
anora  threatened.  A  few  days  after  the  tornado,  the 
precipitated  organisms  began  to  rise  to  the  surface  of 
the  water  and  underneath  the  hot  sun  to  form  breeding- 
grounds  for  the  dangerous  microbes  of  the  air.  Up 
against  the  bastions  of  rock  beat  the  stench  of  the 
living  death.  A  plague  threatened  for  a  brief  time; 
but  they  were  not  a  people  to  remain  passive  in  pres- 
ence of  such  a  danger,  even  though  they  could  easily 
prevent  its  worst  results  by  remedial  measures.  They 
sank  the  dead  organic  masses  again  by  means  of  a 
charge  of  electricity,  and  then  the  deeper  currents  that 
brushed  their  shores  swept  the  corruption  into  the 
great  valleys  of  the  ocean-bed,  there  to  be  embalmed 
for  geological  ages  hence. 

They  regretted  that  they  should  be  the  instruments 
of  this  great  waste  of  life  before  it  had  fulfilled  the  pur- 
pose of  its  stage  of  development;  but  their  regret  was 
tempered  by  the  thought  that  it  was  a  low  and  feeble 
stage,  that  an  infinity  of  such  existence  would  not 
weigh  in  the  balance  with  one  day's  advance  of  a 
single  Limanoran,  and  that  the  energy  set  free  by  this 


1 88  Limanora 

wholesale  dissolution  of  organisms  was  still  ready  for 
other  embodiments  in  the  universe.  The  worst  effect 
they  feared  was  upon  their  own  natures;  to  destroy  life 
or  deal  with  it  frivolously  was  one  of  the  worst  offences 
against  their  humanity,  for  it  introduced  into  the  mind 
a  brutalising  element.  Respect  for  life  in  all  its  forms 
was  one  of  the  truest  tests  of  a  civilisation,  the)'  held. 

And  the  Lilamo  were,  almost  as  much  as  the  physi- 
cians, imbued  with  reverence  for  human  life  and  with  the 
sense  of  the  importance  of  preserving  it  and  giving  it 
the  longest  opportunity  in  the  individual  to  gain  its 
highest  possibility.  They  had  to  protect  their  race 
from  all  external  foes.  They  had  therefore  to  study 
climatic  changes  and  watch  the  sanitary  conditions  of 
the  island.  Sanitation  meant  primarily  the  expulsion 
of  all  hostile  clirolanic  life  and  the  prevention  of  all 
conditions  that  would  attract  it  or  form  its  breeding- 
ground.  Thej^  were  especially  interested  in  the  mag- 
netic and  electric  peculiarities  of  Limanora  and  of  the 
section  of  the  globe  in  which  they  lived;  for  these 
affected  not  only  the  health  and  spirits  of  the  people, 
but  the  amount  of  minute  life  that  harboured  in  the 
earth  or  floated  in  the  atmosphere.  They  could  by 
an  increase  of  these  elements  rid  an  unwholesome  dis- 
trict of  its  unhealthy  conditions;  and  yet  the  in- 
habitants of  it  could  not  remain  whilst  the  process  of 
purification  was  going  on.  Too  much  magnetism  or 
electricity  in  the  earth  or  air  would  endanger  the 
nervous  balance  of  the  human  frame.  The  test  in- 
struments in  the  lava  wells  were  frequently  examined 
to  find  the  electric  state  of  any  section  of  the  island; 
and  one  central  electrometer  was  constantly  recording 
the  electric  state  of  the  atmosphere  in  all  parts  of  it. 
Thus  were  they  able  to  recharge  by  means  of  their 


The  Lilaran  189 

apparatus  whatever  localities  were  found  defective,  and 
tap  those  that  had  a  superfluity;  and  over  the  country 
at  night  the  flame-like  streamers  lit  up  the  darkness 
here  and  there.  But  this  occurred  at  rare  intervals,  for 
it  was  only  in  certain  conditions  of  the  sun  that  the 
earth  sponged  up  more  electricity  than  was  good  for 
the  highest  life  upon  its  surface. 

The  storm-cone  as  a  rule  was  enough  for  sanitation. 
By  its  wind  force  it  could  drift  all  dangerous  clouds  of 
moisture  or  of  bacterial  life  past  Limanora.  By  its 
electric-darting  powers  the  heart  could  be  squeezed  out 
of  storms  before  they  struck  the  shores.  It  regu- 
lated the  rainfall,  depositing  the  contents  of  clouds  by 
day  far  out  upon  the  sea  and  by  night  upon  the  thirst- 
ing land.  Sultry  blacknesses  that  would  otherwise 
float  past  with  only  stifling  effect  were  tapped,  first 
for  their  electricity  and  then  for  their  rain.  Storms  of 
dust  that  now  and  again  darkened  over  the  circle  of 
fog  could  be  precipitated  into  the  ocean  partly  by 
electricity,  partly  by  the  blasts  of  the  storm-cone. 
The  atmosphere  was  kept  singularly  pure  and  free 
from  deleterious  germs  or  particles,  and  few  nights 
passed  without  a  drenching  shower  cleansing  the  whole 
lower  portion  of  the  island.  The  peak  of  Lilaroma 
drew  to  it  like  a  magnet  all  the  masses  of  moisture  that 
collected  within  many  hundred  miles  of  it;  and  a  lit- 
tle manipulation  would  break  these  up  into  refreshing 
night  showers  that  swept  its  slopes  and  the  plateaux 
and  levels  below;  and,  in  order  to  prevent  the  de- 
structive floods  that  this  might  produce  in  the  rivers, 
the  shoulders  of  the  mountain  and  its  deep  valleys 
bristled  with  great  forests  which  sponged  up  the  falling 
moisture  and  let  it  down  gently  from  hour  to  hour  into 
the  bastioned  channels. 


190  Limanora 

Climate  was  to  this  people  as  much  a  matter  of  man- 
agement as  food  and  its  production.  They  could 
modify  it  to  fit  any  change  in  the  conditions  or  neces- 
sities or  purposes  of  life.  To  be  at  the  mercy  of  the 
forces  of  nature  was  a  state  of  existence  in  what  they 
now  considered  their  barbarous  past.  It  was  only  the 
unforeseen  that  had  them  at  a  disadvantage;  and  the 
unforeseen  was  to  them  now  only  the  cosmic.  As 
the  planetary  system  shifted  through  space,  it  had  to 
encounter  conditions  and  modes  and  degrees  of  energy 
and  life  that  nothing  short  of  omniscience  could  antici- 
pate; but  they  were  beginning  to  master  the  secret 
of  many  of  those  unexpected  changes  of  condition. 
The  astro-sciential  families  had  been  classifying  for 
centuries  the  symptoms  that  accompanied  these  in  the 
appearance  of  the  sun  or  of  one  or  other  of  the  planets. 
With  their  innumerable  delicate  instruments  for  record- 
ing and  analysing  the  electric,  magnetic,  luminous,  and 
heat-vaporous  state  of  distant  space,  they  could  see  afar 
off  the  beginnings  of  cosmic  disturbances  and  anticipate 
their  ultimate  direction;  and  in  many  cases  they  could 
guard  Limanora  against  the  more  patent  and  destruc- 
tive effects  of  magnetic  and  electric  storms  and  of  great 
waves  of  heat  or  light. 

Yet  there  was  much  to  master  in  the  new  cosmic 
conditions  that  from  time  to  time  beset  the  earth  or  the 
planetary  system.  Some  seemed  to  arise  so  suddenly 
that  no  observation  could  have  anticipated  them.  Es- 
pecially was  this  the  case  with  living  drift,  into  shoals 
of  which  the  universe  struck,  the  spawn  of  undeveloped 
worlds.  Hence  came  new  diseases  so  widespread  as  to 
be  plagues.  These  generally  evaded  the  fine  instru- 
ments of  the  astro-scientist,  till  they  had  reached  the 
very  atmosphere  of  the  earth;  for  in  the  interstellar 


The  Lilaran 


191 


spaces  they  led  so  meagre  a  life  and  were  spread  so 
thinly  and  widely  that  they  scarcely  intercepted  the 
light  or  other  forms  of  energy  from  the  sun  or  other 
systems.  Yet  the  imaginative  families  and  the  inven- 
tors were  struggling  towards  some  more  delicate  in- 
strument, which  would  observe  and  record  the  presence 
of  interstellar  material  life. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


CHOKTROO 


THE  Lilamo  were  usually  occupied  in  these  sanitary 
duties,  but  at  times  the  other  section  of  their  de- 
fence of  Iyimanora  claimed  their  attention.  I  had  had 
good  reason  to  know  the  force  of  the  lilaran,  or  storm- 
cone,  in  my  attempt  to  arrive  in  the  island.  Had  it  not 
been  decided  to  permit  our  entrance,  our  perseverance 
would  have  failed  of  the  attainment  of  our  object. 

I  was  soon  to  witness  a  marvellous  display  of  the 
defensive  and  repulsive  powers  of  the  storm-cone.  For 
some  years  after  the  first  period  of  my  novitiate  and  my 
partial  admission  to  privileges  as  a  citizen  with  which 
this  period  ended,  there  had  been  observed  throughout 
the  archipelago  a  movement  which  spread  with  con- 
siderable rapidity.  It  was  one  of  the  amusements  of 
the  L,imanorans  to  watch  the  comedy  of  life  upon  the 
other  islands  through  the  idrovamolan,  or  instrument 
for  distance  seeing  and  hearing,  which  they  had  fixed 
high  up  the  mountain.  On  a  floating  strip  of  ire- 
lium,  that  could  be  projected  far  into  the  sky,  scenes 
beneath  the  horizon  could  be  mirrored  and  watched 
through  this  instrument  and  through  other  instruments 
for  reducing  distance.  The  sounds,  too,  that  rose  from 
the  scene  re-echoed  from  the  under-surface  of  the  float- 

192 


Choktroo  193 

ing  mirror,  and  could  be  magnified  by  the  makrakous- 
tic  part  of  the  idrovamolan  into  their  original  volume. 
A  rarer  and  more  difficult  instrument  was  one  which 
combined  with  this  power  of  seeing  and  hearing  at  a 
great  distance  that  of  noting  the  magnetism  working 
in  a  community  even  under  the  horizon. 

Recently  they  had  found  that  they  could  dispense 
with  the  floating  mirror  and  reflector.  The  ether  was 
their  transmitter  of  all  they  wished  to  see  or  hear  at  a 
distance.  Through  it  passed  electric  waves  from  even 
immeasurable  distances,  whilst  the  sky  itself  formed  a 
sufficiently  complete  mirror  for  reflecting  whatever  was 
occurring  under  the  horizon.  By  recent  discoveries 
and  inventions  the}'  were  enabled  to  transform  electric 
impulses  into  the  scene  or  sound  that  gave  them  out 
into  the  surrounding  air.  Their  new  instruments 
would  tap  the  occurrences  at  any  point  on  any  given 
line  or  in  any  given  direction.  They  were  now  inde- 
pendent of  any  artificial  medium  for  their  knowledge 
of  the  outside  world.  The  receivers  of  their  new  idro- 
vamolan were  every  moment  recording  and  analysing 
whatsoever  occurred  along  the  line  in  which  it  was 
directed;  and  its  transformers  were  constantly  trans- 
lating the  electric  records  into  the  forms  or  sounds 
which  originally  sent  out  the  impulses;  it  was  so  con- 
structed as  to  prevent  the  confusion  of  waves  that  came 
from  different  points  on  the  route,  for  it  moved  with 
the  swiftness  of  light  or,  if  required,  with  that  of 
electricity.  These  new  modifications  gave  them  hope 
that  they  would  soon  be  able  to  see  and  hear  much 
of  what  goes  on  in  universes  which,  though  invisible, 
yet  transmit  luminous  and  electric  waves  sufficiently 
strong  to  affect  their  telescopic  instruments,  and  that 
the   straggling  rays  of  light  or  electricity  might  be 


194  Limanora 

transformed  into  the   scenes   and    sounds  which  gave 
them  birth. 

As  it  was,  the  Limanorans  were  able  to  watch  all  that 
was  going  on  in  the  islands  around  them.  During 
their  leisure  hours,  when  it  was  their  duty  as  well  as 
their  pleasure  to  relax  the  mind,  they  would  sit  and 
observe  the  life  of  what  they  called  their  menagerie. 
To  them,  indeed,  the  whirling  eddy  of  existence  with 
its  ambitions  and  crimes,  its  luxury  and  miserjr,  in  the 
archipelago  around  seemed  little  more  than  the  antics 
of  monkeys  or  the  internecine  appetites  of  wild  beasts. 
The  scenes  were  generally  amusing  in  the  ape-like 
vanities  and  mimicries  they  exhibited.  Sometimes 
they  were  offensive  and  even  repulsive  in  their  filth 
or  brutalities.  How  beings  formed  like  themselves 
could  endure  the  grossness  of  their  luxuries  and  the 
falsity  and  hollowness  of  their  most  admired  social  dis- 
plays was  to  them  a  bewildering  problem.  Even  the 
best  of  these  islanders  were  as  far  behind  the  Lima- 
norans in  true  human  qualities  as  they  thought  them- 
selves in  advance  of  apes.  The  daily  observation  of 
these  creatures  so  humanly  endowed  and  yet  so  foul 
and  blind  in  act  was  often  too  much  to  bear  for  any 
length  of  time;  the  most  repulsive  scenes  were  those 
of  what  was  considered  high  life,  of  courts  and  courtly 
circles,  of  rulers  and  leaders  of  act  and  thought. 
"  Who  can  bear  the  horror  of  their  intrigues  and  hypo- 
crisies, their  cruel  trampling  of  the  fallen,  their  hideous 
fawning  on  the  successful,  their  insolent  pride  and  in- 
tolerance of  the  weak  !  "  I  often  heard,  exclamations 
like  this  from  the  lips  of  the  watchers  as  they  turned 
away  from  the  idrovamolan  with  a  shudder.  The 
combination  of  ape  and  bully,  of  reptile  and  vapourer 
was,  in  the  thoughts  of  this  people,  the  lowest  depth  to 


Choktroo  195 

which  human  nature  could  fall;  and  it  was  the  usual 
and  most  envied  form  in  the  high  social  life  of  most  of 
these   islands.     The  barbarism  and   ignorance  of  the 
poor  and  downtrodden  marked  a  less  retrograde  phase 
of  humanity.     The  sight  of  the  posturings  and  scrap- 
ings, the  insolence  and  spaniel  manners  of  the  higher 
classes  served  every  day  to  deepen  the  horror  of  exile 
and  to  frighten  every  Limanoran  from  anything  that 
would  lead  even  to  the  slightest  retrogression.     Had  it 
not  been  for  this  wholesome  effect  upon  their  minds, 
they  would  have  long  ago  abandoned  the  custom  of 
watching  this  beast  spectacle  of  retrograde  and  showy 
civilisation,  so  much  pain  mingled  with  their  amuse- 
.  ment  at  it.     They  knew  that  their  pity  was  vain ;  for 
it  would  take  unremitting  effort  for  thousands  of  years 
to  raise  these  peoples  to  the  Limanoran  level,  if  the 
Limanoran  missionaries  had  not  in  the  meantime  been 
dragged  down  to  the  lower  level ;  and  these  thousands 
of  years   could  be  better   spent   in   attaining   higher 
and  higher  ideals  in  their  own  life.     The  task,  they 
knew,  was  as  hopeless  as  if  these  descendants  of  their 
degenerate   exiles   should  attempt  to  drag  the  lower 
animals  up  to  their  stage  of  human  development,  and 
this  irremediable  nature  of  their  state  added  to  the  pain 
of  the  observers. 

Had  the  habit  of  watching  the  comedy  of  their 
menagerie  been  given  up,  the  Lilamo  would  have  still 
had  to  observe  the  enactment  of  history  in  the  sur- 
rounding islands.  It  was  part  of  their  duty  of  defence 
to  anticipate  all  armaments  against  Limanora;  and 
they  had  discovered  that  there  was  unusual  excitement 
amongst  the  various  peoples  since  the  arrival  of  the 
Daydream  in  their  waters.  It  was  evident  that  this 
formed  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  archipelago.    The 


196  Limanora 

Lilamo  reported  the  movements  of  the  portentous 
smoke-pennoned  ship  which  sailed  in  the  teeth  of  all 
winds  like  their  own  ships  of  the  air.  What  was  to 
prevent  it  approaching  Limanora  in  spite  of  the  force 
of  the  storm-cone  ?  The  thought  brought  the  first 
trace  of  fear  into  the  breasts  of  this  people;  for,  once 
a  foreign  element  had  been  able  to  force  its  way  into 
their  midst,  how  could  they  prevent  moral  contamina- 
tion and  swift  retrogression  ?  Their  advance  would 
crumble  away  in  a  few  centuries,  nothing  but  their 
material  progress  being  likely  to  survive  the  incursion 
of  barbarism. 

It  was  imperative  that  new  measures  of  defence  be 
adopted.  It  was  then  that  the  forces  of  Rimla  had 
been  enormously  increased,  thus  making  it  possible  for 
most  of  its  energy  to  take  the  electric  form  in  the  storm- 
cone.  With  this  they  would  be  able  to  repel  the  new 
monster  with  so  much  metal  in  its  bosom;  they  would 
play  with  it  as  with  a  toy  on  the  water.  All  my  wan- 
derings had  been  narrowly  watched,  my  landing  in 
Aleofane,  my  escape  from  it,  my  sojourn  in  Tirralaria 
and  ascent  of  Klimarol,  my  companionship  with  Sneek- 
ape  and  my  scorn  of  him,  my  sympathy  with  the 
refugees  in  Nookoo,  and  my  friendship  with  Noola. 
Nothing  escaped  their  attention,  and  my  character  was 
analysed  in  the  most  minute  way  by  deductions  from 
the  details  of  my  conduct.  It  was  decided  that,  if  I 
showed  eagerness  and  persistence  enough,  I  should  be 
allowed  to  land  with  Noola;  but  that  my  fire-ship  and 
my  men  should  be  blown  off  from  the  coast. 

Since  then  the  affairs  of  the  archipelago  had  been 
observed  as  narrowly  as  before,  and  especially  the 
wanderings  and  history  of  the  Daydream.  As  I  ex- 
pected, it  passed  finally  into  the  possession  of  Broolyi, 


Choktroo  197 

and  the  new  ideas  and  methods  it  brought  into  the 
warfare  of  this  isolated  zone  of  the  world  made  an  era 
in  its  history.  A  great  military  organiser  had  arisen; 
and  he  had  by  the  potency  of  his  will  moulded  Broolyi 
into  a  unity  which  with  the  help  of  new  fire-ships  built 
on  the  model  of  my  yacht  had  brought  the  other  islands 
into  subjection.  Even  the  aristocratic  and  refined 
Aleofane  with  its  subtle  government  and  all-powerful 
central  institutions  had  to  bow  its  neck  to  the  yoke. 
This  strange  romance  had  been  enacting  for  more  than 
a  decade;  and  the  Ljmanorans  had  been  watching  it, 
at  first  with  amusement,  and  afterwards  with  resolution 
and  clear  purpose.  They  knew  the  whole  of  this  sub- 
jugative  process  was  based  on  hypocrisy  and  injustice 
and  bloodshed,  but  it  was-not  worse  than  the  methods 
of  political  existence  it  displaced;  it  only  meant  the 
substitution  of  one  vicious  ideal  for  others  as  vicious. 
There  would  be  more  movement  and  activity  for  a  time, 
but  as  soon  as  the  masterful  will  had  vanished,  there 
would  be  a  quick  return  to  the  old  lazy  luxury  in  the 
few  and  lazy  misery  in  the  many.  It  had  cost  multi- 
tudes of  lives,  and  would  cost  many  more  before  the 
military  mania  had  burned  itself  out  ;  but  of  what 
worth  were  most  of  those  lives  to  themselves  or  to  the 
world  ?  They  succeeded,  where  they  did  succeed,  only 
in  sustaining  themselves  wretchedly  and  perpetuating 
a  strain  of  existence  that  was,  if  changed  at  all,  tending 
downwards.  The  new  spectacle  was  more  sanguinary, 
but  not  one  whit  more  dismal  than  the  ones  the  Lima- 
norans  had  witnessed  for  many  generations.  The 
misery  was  irremediable,  the  standard  of  existence 
was  so  low.  To  fence  it  off  like  a  plague  was  all  that 
could  be  done. 

When  I  sat  down   to  the  idrovamolan  I  soon  dis- 


198  Limanora 

covered  the  master  ot  this  transformation  scene.  I 
heard  in  Broolyi  from  all  the  entrenched  camps  and 
the  towns  lond  huzzas  and  cries  of  "  Long  live  Chok- 
troo!"  Turning  the  line  of  sight  to  the  capital,  the 
conflagration  of  cries  which  swept  the  crowded  streets 
soon  led  my  eye  to  the  centre  of  the  far-reaching  mag- 
netic thrill,  the  square  of  the  imperial  palace.  There  I 
saw  step  out  on  a  balcony  and  bow  to  the  enthusiastic 
populace  a  little  firm-set  figure  that  seemed  to  awaken 
memories  in  me.  I  strengthened  the  power  of  vision 
in  order  to  examine  the  face  more  keenly,  and,  as  a 
great  burst  of  "  Long  live  our  emperor!  Long  live 
Choktroo!"  kindled  and  blazed  athwart  the  city,  the 
identity  of  the  little  conqueror  broke  upon  my  con- 
sciousness. 

It  was  tny  cabin-boy,  Jock  Drew,  whom  I  had 
rescued  from  a  life  of  degradation,  if  not  ultimate  in- 
famy, in  his  native  village.  His  father,  the  local 
chimney-sweep,  a  man  of  vigorous  but  small  physique, 
had  succumbed  to  the  fate  of  so  many  of  his  trade,  and 
swept  his  throat  hourly  with  the  fiercest  of  whiskey. 
His  mother,  a  brave,  strong  little  peasant  girl,  had 
died  early  of  the  effort  to  master  this  thirsty  piece  of 
humanity  that  had  been  tied  to  her,  and  his  vice.  The 
boy  had  the  maternal  lines  in  his  nature,  strong  will, 
great  courage,  and  fiery  passion.  It  stirred  my  pity  to 
see  him  struggle  with  such  a  mean  destiny,  doubtless 
to  sink  hopelessly  into  the  ditch.  He  had  been  shield- 
ing himself  from  the  temptation  that  his  drunken 
father  set  before  him  by  living  in  a  world  of  penny 
romance.  His  imagination  was  strung  to  its  highest 
pitch  by  the  gory  pages  of  his  hard-won  treasures. 
When  he  heard  of  my  proposed  expedition  to  the  other 
side  of  the  world,  he  came  and  pleaded  for  even  the 


Choktroo  199 

most  menial  position  on  board  the  Daydream.  I  was 
only  too  eager  to  rescue  him  from  the  hideous  fate  be- 
fore him,  and  engaged  him  as  cabin-boy. 

After  he  came  on  board,  some  of  the  men  were  in- 
clined to  patronise  him,  and,  when  he  resisted  their 
approaches  and  grew  sulky,  to  apply  a  rope's  end  to 
him.  I  had  to  stand  between  him  and  them,  even 
though  I  saw  that  in  the  end  he  would  have  the  best  of 
the  quarrel;  for  he  was  strong  of  build  and  violent 
in  temper,  and  only  controlled  himself,  I  could  see, 
that  he  might  have  the  surer  and  more  complete  re- 
venge. He  was  a  solitary,  musing  boy,  and  I  thought 
to  draw  him  from  his  solitude  hy  interesting  him  in 
scientific  and  philosophical  books;  but  he  returned 
with  the  greater  gusto  to  his  penny  series  of  lives  of  the 
great  pirates,  robbers,  warriors,  and  conquerors.  The 
only  section  of  the  Daydream 's  library  which  could 
seduce  him  from  his  loved  studies  was  that  containing 
history  and  adventures.  The  crew,  as  was  natural, 
held  the  studious  little  recluse  too  cheap;  and  occasion- 
ally felt  the  sting  of  his  tongue  when  they  bantered 
him;  but  his  melodramatic  manners  and  attitude, 
copied  from  the  coloured  representations  of  his  heroes 
in  his  favourite  series,  laid  him  open  again  to  their 
laughter  and  scorn.  His  mind  was  unwholesome 
with  brooding  over  gory  achievements  and  tremendous 
ambitions.  He  often  uttered  absurd  boasts  and  gave 
himself  airs  that  were  incongruous  with  his  minute 
figure  and  menial  position,  and  Jock  Drew  ceased  to  be 
the  butt  of  the  ship  only  when  I  was  present;  but  he 
never  ceased  to  read  and  meditate.  The  laughter  of 
his  shipmates  drove  him  more  and  more  into  his  books 
and  into  himself.  Later  on  in  the  voyage  he  extended 
his  reading  to  books   on   naval   architecture  and  the 


200  Limanora 

management  of  the  steam-engine,  and  at  last  would 
spend  hours  assisting  the  engineer  below.  He  came 
to  know  every  part  of  the  machinery  and  every  secret 
of  its  construction  and  management.  Indeed,  the  chief 
engineer  acknowledged  that  in  case  of  his  illness  he 
had  an  able  successor  on  board.  The  guns  and  all  the 
ironwork  of  the  ship  drew  his  attention  next,  and  he 
came  to  be  respected  for  his  practical  knowledge  of 
every  part;  when  anything  needed  mending,  it  was  he 
who  was  ultimately  called  in  to  give  advice  or  aid. 
Slowly  he  rose  to  be  the  real  master  of  the  Daydream, 
even  though  he  continued  to  be  laughed  at  for  his  hero- 
mimic  airs  and  his  occasional  boasts.  He  had  by  his 
reading  and  studies  made  himself  essential  to  every 
man  on  board,  and  his  strong  will  exacted  outward 
respect,  if  not  obedience  to  him,  in  return.  It  was 
strange  to  see  the  revolution  in  the  ship's  crew  during 
their  voyaging  about  the  archipelago.  When  I  came 
on  board  again,  I  saw  that,  though  they  continued  a 
semblance  of  their  old  bantering,  they  had  in  their 
hearts  begun  to  bow  before  the  boy  of  twenty.  The 
very  gall  of  their  scorn  and  of  his  menial  position  had 
driven  him  into  this  slow  but  striking  revolt. 

And  here  I  saw  the  result.  His  boyhood,  neglected 
and  beaten,  had  given  the  cunning  and  worldly  wisdom 
and  concentration  of  power  that  belong  in  most  to  late 
maturity.  The  strength  that  had  lain  dormant  for  so 
many  centuries  in  his  mother's  peasant  race  had 
gathered  in  him  like  a  torrent.  The  hard  conditions 
of  his  youth  had  reined  in  the  wildness  and  animality 
which  had  run  riot  in  his  father's  debauchery.  Hun- 
dreds of  such  masterful  natures,  finding  no  sphere  in 
their  native  locality  to  give  scope  to  the  long-dammed- 
up  powers  of  their  race,  waste  themselves  in  chafing 


Choktroo  201 

against  their  petty  surroundings  and  die  with  the 
reputation  of  miniature  devils.  The  focussed  energy 
of  two  long-suppressed  races  had  in  this  case  found  its 
career  and  scope,  and  a  diabolic  conflagration  was  the 
consequence  in  this  isolated  region  of  the  world.  The 
race  of  Jock  Drew  had  never  before  blossomed;  now 
that  it  had  found  the  fit  soil,  it  had  flowered  porten- 
tously. 

The  misfortune  was  that  his  ill-moulded  youth 
and  his  favourite  reading  had  left  him  naked  of  moral- 
ity. He  was  not  in  this  respect  much  worse  than  the 
people  whom  he  misled  into  war  or  than  those  whom 
he  subjugated.  He  had  only  more  concentrated  will 
and  energy  and  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  means 
that  would  best  satisfy  his  appetite  for  power.  The 
complete  suppression  of  the  desire  through  thousands 
of  years  of  his  peasant  ancestry  made  its  ultimate  man- 
ifestation on  finding  freedom  of  action  all  the  more 
tremendous.  It  grew  with  growing  self-confidence; 
and  confidence  grew  with  success.  His  bearing  wholly 
altered  during  the  wanderings  of  the  Daydream  before 
I  had  abandoned  her.  He  had  grown  erect  and  threw 
his  great  chest  out  and  held  his  large  head  up  till  he 
overawed  his  persecutors.  Seeing  him  only  in  a  sitting 
position  or  looking  only  at  his  bust  one  would  have 
guessed  him  to  be  of  lofty  stature.  Yet  like  his  father 
and  mother  he  never  rose  above  five  feet  in  height; 
and  as  his  face  filled  up  with  good  fare  and  the  know- 
ledge of  his  own  powers  it  grew  handsome  and  calm, 
seldom  showing  the  fierce  brute  slumbering  under- 
neath. His  wonderful  self-control  and  reserve  held 
him  silent  in  circumstances  where  speech  or  action 
would  have  revealed  his  innate  folly  or  animality,  and 
he  learned   the  power   of  such   reserve,  allied   with 


202  Limanora 

sudden  and  decisive  action,  over  the  wills  of  others;  he 
saw  that  it  throws  an  air  of  mystery  round  the  indi- 
viduality. So  he  refrained  from  action  till  he  had  com- 
plete control  of  the  circumstances  and  had  gathered 
such  resources  into  his  hands  as  would  astonish  his 
rivals  or  enemies;  silently,  unscrupulously,  he  got  to 
know  the  cards  they  held  in  their  hands,  whilst  he  con- 
cealed his  own  under  seeming  inaction;  then  with  a 
sudden  and  unnerving  move  he  threw  all  his  forces 
upon  them  and  demoralised  them.  I  had  watched  the 
method  in  the  little  intrigues  and  conspiracies  on  ship- 
board, and  I  knew  when  I  observed  him  through  the 
idrovamolan  that  he  was  the  same  Jock  Drew,  only 
more  developed  by  his  astonishing  successes. 

He  had  found  his  opportunity  when  the  Daydream 
finally  anchored  in  the  chief  harbour  of  Broolyi. 
There  was  much  need  of  government  after  the  plague; 
the  monarch  and  his  family  had  fled  and  finally  per- 
ished; and  the  two  rivals  for  the  position  were  almost 
equally  matched.  There  was  prospect  of  a  long  civil 
war.  The  wiser  and  stronger  counsellors  set  up  a 
republic,  but  this  was  only  a  feeble  stop-gap.  The 
flames  of  civil  war  burst  out  in  spite  of  it. 

Jock  arrived  at  this  stage  of  their  history,  and  joined 
the  staff  of  the  competitor  for  the  throne  who  held  the 
capital  and  the  key  of  the  public  treasury.  He  rapidly 
became  prime  adviser  in  the  camp,  and  as  soon  as  he 
had  attracted  confidence  in  himself  and  his  character 
he  set  his  method  to  work.  He  led  an  army  out  to 
attack  the  enemy,  and  completely  routed  them  by  the 
suddenness  of  his  action;  he  had  led  one  half  of  his 
troops  straight  out  to  meet  the  forces  opposed  to  him, 
but  he  had  sent  the  others  round  by  a  secret  path  into 
their  rear,   and   they  burst   simultaneously   upon  the 


Choktroo  203 

enemy.  The  surprise  broke  the  spirit  of  the  attacked 
and  they  fled  in  rout. 

With  wily  stratagem  he  incited  other  officers  to  rival 
him,  and  took  care  that  they  went  out  under  disad- 
vantageous conditions.  They  failed,  and  their  failures 
led  to  loud  demands  for  Choktroo,  as  he  came  to  be 
called.  He  now  got  command  of  the  whole  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  state,  and  used  them  for  the  making  of 
guns  and  other  surprises  for  the  enemy.  Meanwhile  he 
allowed  the  enemy  to  think  that  his  party  was  wholly 
demoralised  by  defeats,  and  they  crept  up  towards  the 
walls  of  the  city  in  their  excess  of  confidence.  He  knew 
by  his  spies  in  their  camp  how  vainglorious  they  had 
become;  but  he  allowed  their  bravado  to  rise  to  the 
pitch  of  foolhardiness,  and  then,  his  preparations  being 
made,  he  opened  fire  upon  them, from  all  sides.  So  com- 
plete was  the  rout,  that  the  enemy  disappeared  from 
the  country  around  and  took  refuge  in  distant  castles 
and  forts. 

His  name  grew  into  a  power  of  itself,  rousing  enthu- 
siasm wherever  he  appeared  and  greatly  terrifying 
his  opponents.  It  was  then  that  there  began  the 
most  striking  part  of  his  career.  All  the  brave  and 
able  generals  who  during  the  civil  war  had  come  up 
from  the  ranks  were  completely  in  his  power.  He 
sent  them  out  to  master  castles  or  detachments  of  the 
enemy,  but  with  such  imperfect  forces  or  supplies  as 
would  render  them  inactive.  Their  individual  talents 
snatched  occasional  small  victories,  but  as  a  rule  they 
only  prepared  for  ultimate  victory  by  raising  entrench- 
ments and  scouring  the  country  around.  Whenever 
he  discovered  that  in  any  part  a  general  was  about  to 
be  successful  in  spite  of  his  disadvantages,  he  hurried 
thither  and  led  the  troops  to  victory.      If  the  feebleness 


204  Limanora 

of  an  officer  anywhere  seemed  about  to  ensure  defeat 
he  marched  reinforcements  to  his  aid  and  turned  it  into 
success.  Whenever  he  suffered  defeat  himself,  he 
always  managed  to  represent  it  as  a  brilliant  success 
marred  by  the  incompetence  of  some  other  general. 
At  last  he  grew  weary  of  the  guerrilla  warfare  and  re- 
solved that  it  should  end.  So  he  withdrew  his  troops 
from  siege- work  and  allowed  the  rebels  to  gather  con- 
fidence and  to  mass  again.  He  sent  several  generals 
against  them  with  small  armies.  Their  defeats  gave 
the  enemy  still  greater  boldness.  They  ventured 
nearer  to  the  capital;  and  when  they  were  defiling 
through  a  pass  he  appeared  on  the  heights  with  his 
guns.  The  two  sections  of  his  army  closed  the  mouths 
of  the  pass,  and  the  finest  array  the  rebels  had  ever 
shown  was  shattered.  The  castles  and  forts  soon  sur- 
rendered. With  one  acclaim  Choktroo  was  elected 
emperor,  and  the  candidate  whom  he  was  supposed  to 
be  helping  vanished  from  the  scene. 

His  boyish  reading  had  made  him  as  much  of  an 
actor  as  he  was  by  nature  an  organiser.  Before  long 
the  whole  people  of  Broolyi  were  adoring  him  as  a  god. 
Their  passion  was  glory;  and  in  him  they  had  found 
the  incarnation  of  glory.  No  piece  of  work  in  the  state 
so  minute  but,  if  successful,  he  claimed  as  his  own,  even 
should  it  have  been  centuries  old.  No  act  of  his  own 
but,  if  unsuccessful,  he  found  a  scapegoat  for.  He  was 
mean  enough  to  steal  and  eavesdrop  in  his  own  house- 
hold; he  was  bold  enough  to  outlie  the  foulest  of  his 
minions,  to  outface  the  most  manifest  exposure  of  his 
crimes.  He  even  dared  to  assume  the  role  of  divinity. 
He  ringed  himself  round  with  mystery  and  ceremonial, 
and  when  he  did  appear  in  public  made  the  appear- 
ance impressive  by  its  display.     He  knew  the  effect  of 


Choktroo  205 

silence,  and  cheapened  neither  himself  nor  his  words. 
He  organised  the  state  on  military  lines  and  made  it 
centre  in  his  personality. 

He  soon  had  exhausted  the  treasury  and  the  resources 
of  the  country  in  the  civil  war  and  in  his  public  dis- 
plays. Nor  could  he  keep  up  his  glory  long  in  in- 
action, even  though  it  was  an  inaction  of  mystery.  He 
must  soon  go  to  war  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  island. 
There  he  could  shine,  there  he  could  get  all  the  sup- 
plies he  needed;  but  he  had  to  keep  up  the  farce  the 
nation  had  played  for  centuries  of  professing  to  keep 
the  peace,  for  he  had  adopted  the  title  of  the  Prince 
of  Peace.  He  had  to  make  it  appear  that  his  wars 
were  forced  on  him  by  his  neighbours,  and  for  this 
invented  an  elaborate  system  of  diplomacies  which 
enabled  him  to  pick  a  quarrel  and  yet  seem  to  have  it 
thrust  upon  him. 

His  first  quarry  was  Aleofane;  for  it  was  the  wealth- 
iest island  in  the  archipelago.  For  years  he  kept  up  a 
show  of  alliance  with  it,  till  he  had  his  fire-ships  ready, 
built  under  his  direction  on  the  model  of  the  Daydream. 
He  racked  his  dominion  to  make  guns  and  all  kinds  of 
firearms.  When  the  expedition  was  complete,  he  made 
a  demand  of  Aleofane  that  had  show  of  reason  and  yet 
could  not  be  complied  with.  It  was  refused,  and  his 
fleet  was  outside  the  capital  before  it  could  make  prepa- 
ration. He  sent  some  of  his  ships  to  the  other  side  of 
the  island  to  land  troops,  and  as  these  marched  up  by 
land  he  disembarked  the  rest  under  protection  of  his 
guns.  The  first  battle  decided  the  war.  He  dethroned 
the  monarch  of  Aleofane  and  annexed  the  island  to 
his  dominions,  setting  up  a  viceroy,  with  a  strong  force 
to  support  him. 

He  drew  new  troops  from  the  ranks  of  the  people  for 


206  Limanora 

service  in  other  islands.  He  impoverished  those  nobles 
who  refused  to  join  his  court  or  his  staff.  He  broke 
the  spirit  of  all  who  would  not  adore  him,  and  he 
drained  by  taxation  the  resources  of  the  country. 

With  still  larger  armies  and  larger  fleets  he  swept 
conquering  over  the  whole  archipelago,  till  every 
people  bowed  before  him.  Those  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  his  wars  or  in  his  service  he  elevated  to 
new  distinctions  and  titles.  Those  who  died  in  his 
wars  he  beatified.  With  great  ceremony  he  would 
raise  all  the  dead  on  one  of  his  battle-fields  to  the  rank 
of  sub-divinities,  till  his  heaven  was  as  crowded  as  his 
court.  He  did  not  obliterate  the  old  religious;  but  he 
overshadowed  them,  and  his  policy  kept  subject  to 
him  the  passion  for  glory  in  life  and  deification  after 
death  that  lurks  in  every  human  bosom.  The  active 
and  the  romantic  were  strung  up  to  enthusiasm  by  the 
magnetism  of  his  name.  Most  thought  it  was  his  per- 
sonality which  set  their  blood  throbbing,  but  it  was 
only  that  his  deeds  and  his  histrionic  power  of  magni- 
fying them  worked  on  their  imaginations.  How  wild 
their  fervour  I  could  scarcely  have  realised  had  I  not 
observed  it  with  my  own  senses. 

He  had  to  keep  moving  and  victoriously  moving 
if  his  magnetism  were  not  to  vanish.  When  his  em- 
pire included  all  the  islands  in  the  archipelago  but  the 
Isle  of  Devils  in  the  centre,  there  was  nothing  for  it  but 
to  attempt  its  conquest.  We  heard  him  bluster  out 
his  favourite  bombastic  phrases,  learned  from  his  penny 
romances  and  biographies.  "  Heaven  is  our  ally,  and 
who  on  earth  can  stand  against  us?  Is  it  not  our 
mission,  the  mission  of  a  god,  to  chase  all  devils  from 
the  earth  ?  Our  last  conquest  shall  be  hell,  and  its 
denizens  shall  die  by  fire  and  sword."     Utterances  and 


Choktroo  207 

proclamations  like  this  fired  the  imaginations  of  his 
soldiers,  and  the}'  would  have  laid  their  lives  down  at 
the  moment  for  this  fire-eater.  What  he  had  boasted 
or  threatened  before,  he  had  done,  or  had  by  astute 
fiction  persuaded  his  followers  that  he  had  done;  and 
what  limit  was  there  to  his  deeds?  If  he  snid  that  he 
would  scale  the  heavens,  they  were  certain  he  would 
do  it.  The  thought  fused  them  into  a  unity  and 
chased  out  of  their  breasts  the  panic  which  the  mere 
mention  of  the  central  isle  produced. 

He  had  not  the  traditional  and  hereditarjr  ague-fit  to 
overcome  in  his  blood,  j-et  there  was  a  new  sinking  of 
the  heart  when  he  thought  of  his  task.  He  had  to 
reassure  himself  by  wild  rhodomontade,  as  he  superin- 
tended the  building  and  armament  of  an  enormous 
fleet  and  the  concentration  of  the  largest  army  the 
archipelago  had  ever  seen.  He  could  not  pick  a  diplo- 
matic quarrel  with  his  new  victim;  yet  he  must  have 
at  least  the  semblance  of  a  cause  in  order  to  put  heart 
into  his  followers.  He  announced  that  he  had  sent 
envoys  to  the  Isle  of  Devils  to  open  intercourse  with  it, 
but  they  were  not  allowed  to  approach.  Again  and 
again  had  he  tried  this  pacific  measure,  but  no  heed 
had  been  given  to  him.  Let  vengeance  be  upon  the 
heads  of  so  churlish  and  unjust  a  people!  How  could 
such  poltroons  and  men-haters  be  allowed  to  cumber 
the  earth  ? 

I  watched  the  great  fleet  put  out  from  Broolyi  with 
its  streamers  of  smoke.  We  could  have  heard  the  ac- 
clamations almost  with  the  unaided  ear;  they  rent  the 
sky  when  Choktroo  went  on  board  his  own  fire-ship, 
which  was  thrice  the  size  of  the  largest  of  the  others, 
and  thrice  more  brilliantly  caparisoned.  He  passed 
with  his  favourite  silent  and  self-absorbed  look  on  his 


208  Limanora 

face  through  the  applauding  crowds  on  to  a  raised 
platform  in  the  stern,  reserved  for  him  and  his  staff. 
Arrived  there  he  paced  silently  with  his  chin  resting 
on  his  folded  arms.  He  knew  what  an  impression  of 
godlikeness  this  made  on  the  crowd.  Small  though  he 
was  in  stature,  he  doubtless  seemed  to  his  followers  and 
the  people  on  the  shore  to  take  gigantic  proportions. 

I  was  amazed  to  see  so  little  perturbation  amongst  the 
Limanorans.  They  seemed  to  watch  the  whole  scene 
as  if  it  were  a  comedy.  On  the  fleet  steamed,  and  yet 
there  was  perfect  calm  in  the  community;  only  the 
Lilamo  were  at  their  posts  on  the  peak  of  L,ilaroma. 
The  rest  were  peacefully  seated  at  the  idrovamolans  or 
busy  with  their  usual  avocations.  I  knew  the  destruc- 
tiveness  of  the  great  cannon  that  Choktroo  had  pre- 
pared, and  the  distance  they  would  carry.  On  this 
point  indeed  I  had  been  consulted  some  months  before. 
I  knew,  too,  how  this  people  shrank  from  every  act  that 
would  involve  the  loss  of  a  human  life.  How  were 
they  to  repel  this  great  armament  without  whelming 
it  in  the  ocean  and  drowning  a  large  proportion  of 
those  in  the  ships?  Thyriel  could  throw  no  light  on 
the  problem;  we  were  both  too  young  to  be  taken  into 
the  confidence  of  the  wise  men  or  to  know  their  designs. 
I  could  do  nothing  but  watch  the  fleet  and  then  pass 
to  my  daily  duties. 

A  night  passed,  and  at  dawn  we  could  see  the  islands 
of  smoke  lie  black  on  the  horizon ;  the  ships  themselves 
had  not  appeared.  Choktroo  evidently  knew  that  it 
was  useless  to  conceal  the  expedition  or  its  object  from 
this  far-seeing  people  under  the  darkness  of  night.  It 
was  too  well  known  throughout  the  archipelago  how 
penetrative  was  their  gaze.  He  meant  to  make  his 
attack  by  day.     Soon  the  funnels  and  the  masts  broke 


Choktroo  209 

the  sky-line.  Yet  there  was  not  a  sound  from  the 
storm-cone.  The  slight  wind  had  fallen;  everything 
favoured  the  invader.  He  could  see  through  the  trans- 
lucent air  every  feature  of  our  island  and  almost  every 
movement  of  its  inhabitants  as  soon  as  we  could  dis- 
cern the  human  beings  on  board  his  ships  with  the 
naked  eye.  Were  they  getting  drawn  into  some  gigan- 
tic trap  ?  This  thought  evidently  occurred  to  the 
leader  of  the  armament,  as  it  occurred  to  me,  for  the 
fleet  lessened  speed.  I  could  see  Choktroo,  at  a  loss 
what  to  do,  on  his  poop  consulting  with  his  officers, 
who  could  help  him  little.  Still  the  storm-cone  stood 
silent  on  the  mountain-peak. 

The  bold  step  had  to  be  taken ;  the  order  was  given 
for  advance.  The  smoke  again  streamed  in  the  rear  of 
the  fleet,  and  I  could  see  the  gunners  prepare  for 
action  and  the  sailors  and  soldiers  set  the  boats  ready 
for  launching.  What  had  happened  to  the  Lilamo? 
Were  they  all  asleep  ?  Was  the  progress  of  the  island 
at  last  to  be  trampled  under  the  feet  of  this  brutal 
soldier  and  his  forces?  The  fire-ships  were  almost 
within  cannon-shot  of  the  shore;  there  puffed  out  the 
preliminary  whiff  from  the  side  of  Choktroo' s  steamer 
and  the  ball  fell  with  a  roar  into  the  ocean  between. 
Another  five  minutes  and  matters  would  be  past 
remedy.  Yet  there  was  perfect  calm  among  the  L,ima- 
norans.  I  controlled  my  excitement  and  watched  the 
fleet.  Everything  was  bustle  on  board,  and  when  I 
sat  down  to  the  idrovamolan  all  sounds  were  jubilant 
and  boasting.  This  Isle  of  Devils  was  at  last  to  have 
her  master.  This  proud  isolation  was  at  last  to  be 
broken.  Such  exclamations  I  could  hear  from  the 
gunners  as  they  loaded  and  ran  out  their  guns. 

All  was  silence,   for  all  was  ready  for  the  word  of 


210  Limanora 

command.  Choktroo  paced  his  poop  in  scarce-con- 
trollable glee.  His  thoughts  were  doubtless  stretching 
out  beyond  the  fog  circle  to  the  countries  he  had  left 
behind  him  with  his  boyhood,  other  worlds  for  him  to 
conquer.  His  arms  were  folded  and  his  eye  was  turned 
inward;  he  knew  that  the  whole  expedition  was  await- 
ing his  nod.  Soon  he  stopped  stone-silent  and  stiff,  as 
if  to  give  the  decisive  word.  I  waited  the  action,  but 
he  still  stood  moveless.  I  looked  over  the  ship;  there 
was  his  staff  awaiting  his  beck  as  if  petrified.  Every 
man  was  at  his  post,  but  not  a  muscle  moved;  the  eyes 
stared  as  if  they  belonged  to  the  dead.  My  glance 
took  in  the  other  ships;  all  were  as  silent  and  still  as 
the  grave.  The  whole  armament  seemed  turned  to 
stone. 

Then  there  fluttered  down  upon  the  vessels  human 
figures  that  I  recognised  as  of  the  Iyilamo.  In  a  mo- 
ment a  Limanoran  pilot  stood  at  the  helm  of  each  fire- 
ship;  and  as  if  by  nature  the  whole  fleet  turned 
majestically  round  and  made  for  the  shelving  beach  of 
a  low  uninhabited  island  underneath  the  horizon.  On 
and  on  they  sped  straight  for  the  shore,  round  whose 
margin  not  the  least  fringe  of  surf  whitened.  Through 
the  idrovamolan  I  could  hear  the  grating  keels  as  they 
struck  the  sand  and  pebbles  at  full  speed.  The  crash 
seemed  to  awaken  the  crews  and  the  soldiers,  who 
rubbed  their  eyes  as  if  roused  from  a  dream.  Before 
them  the  bows  of  their  ships  were  burrowing  themselves 
in  the  blown  sand  of  the  beach;  but  already  I  could 
see  the  pilots  winging  their  way  through  the  sky  back 
to  Limanora. 

There  was  a  silent  power  in  the  lilaran  which  I  had 
not  investigated:  its  power  of  magnetism.  This  it 
could  exercise  several   miles  off;  but  it  grew  feebler 


Choktroo  2 1 1 

with  the  distance.  In  this  aspect,  then,  the  lilaran 
could  not  be  used  as  a  weapon  of  defence  far  from  the 
shore  of  Limanora.  If,  however,  there  was  a  mass  of 
iron  or  like  maguetisable  metal  in  the  ship  that  con- 
tained its  victims,  its  power  had  been  discovered  to  be 
as  great  far  as  near.  It  was  only  recently  that  they 
had  so  far  developed  their  personal  power  of  arresting 
the  consciousness  by  sudden  sleep-petrifaction  as  to  be 
able  to  exercise  it  at  a  distance.  This  they  accom- 
plished by  material  aids  to  the  magnetic  faculty.  The 
sudden  flashing  of  brilliant  objects  before  the  eyes  and 
the  use  of  powerful  magnets  had  been  found  to  inten- 
sify the  somnifractive  power  of  the  eye  and  the  mag- 
netic sense.  This  led  them  to  make  experiments  with 
the  concentrated  power  of  magnets  all  brilliant  with 
irelium  jewels.  The  result  was  that  they  found  the 
somnifractive  power  to  reside  even  more  in  things  than 
in  persons.  They  tried  it  through  the  lilaran  on  Lima- 
norans  of  the  most  powerful  will  at  the  farthest  corner 
of  the  island,  and  found  it  to  be  the  more  effective  the 
more  power  they  concentrated  and  the  more  iron  or 
metals  of  similar  quality  were  near  the  patient. 

This  result  had  been  reached  about  the  time  they  had 
come  to  see  that  the  invasion  of  their  island  by  Chok- 
troo was  inevitable  without  some  other  than  the  mere 
wind-power  of  the  lilaran.  Step  by  step  the  Lilamo 
brought  their  new  weapon  to  perfection;  at  any  mo- 
ment they  could  concentrate  the  forces  of  Rimla  into 
this  faculty  of  the  lilaran."  They  experimented  on 
Limanorans  in  boats  out  at  sea,  and  finally  could  tabu- 
late the  magnetic  powers  at  various  distances.  This 
explained  to  me  the  flashings  I  had  often  seen  on  the 
horizon  and  had  taken  for  an  effect  of  the  idrovamolan; 
but  they  were  too  near  the  surface  of  the  sea  for  that. 


2 1 2  Limanora 

This  explained  the  perfect  calm  with  which  the  L,ima- 
norans  watched  the  approach  of  Choktroo's  expedition 
and  the  thrilling  keenness  of  the  flashes  that  swept 
over  his  fire-ships. 

I  watched  for  many  days  the  effect  of  this  great  blow 
upon  the  nature  and  fortunes  of  my  old  cabin-boy. 
Over  his  immediate  staff  and  army  he  was  able  to 
regain  his  full  sway  as  soon  as  they  recovered  from  the 
shock;  but  his  power  over  the  other  islanders  was 
completely  shaken.  Bodies  of  them  launched  the  boats 
from  the  steamers  and  made  off  for  their  own  islands 
before  the  leaders  were  aware  of  their  intentions.  The 
moment  Choktroo  realised  the  position  he  turned  his 
still  uninjured  guns  in  the  direction  of  the  sea  and 
commanded  all  issue  from  the  beach  where  his  ships 
were  buried.  For  wholesome  example  he  sank  several 
boats  which  had  almost  got  out  of  his  reach.  Then 
he  set  his  army  to  dig  canals  around  one  of  his  fire- 
ships;  but  no  sooner  was  she  ready  for  floating  than 
the  whole  force  of  the  lilaran  was  turned  in  her  direc- 
tion; the  waves  rose  and  a  single  night's  surf  com- 
pletely undid  the  labour  of  days.  The  ship  was  as 
deeply  embedded  as  ever;  and  her  sisters  had  almost 
disappeared  beneath  the  sand-dunes.  The  weight  of 
metal  in  them  shortened  the  process  of  burial. 

It  was  clear  that  nothing  could  be  done  to  save  the 
expedition  or  bring  its  material  back  to  Broolyi.  Be- 
fore many  days  we  saw  the  soldiers  embark  somewhat 
sadly  in  the  boats  and  find  their  way  across  the  ocean 
to  the  adjacent  islands.  Piecemeal  the  whole  army 
retraced  its  steps  to  Broolyi. 

It  was  not  likely  that  Choktroo  would  allow  this  slur 
to  rest  on  his  fame  and  eat  into  his  power  like  rust,  for 
there  was  clear  evidence  that  his  influence  over  even 


Choktroo  213 

the  Broolyians  had  greatly  suffered.  By  means  of  his 
advertising  and  his  histrionic  abilities  he  had  brought 
them  to  believe  that  he  was  invincible;  they  now  began 
to  feel  that  he  had  the  same  limitations  as  themselves: 
he  was  powerless  against  the  magic  of  the  Isle  of  Devils. 
All  his  wiles  were  needed  to  check  the  spread  of  panic 
and  distrust.  He  first  of  all  minimised  the  defeat  in 
his  proclamations,  and  before  many  months  were  over 
he  had  come  to  speak  of  it  as  a  victory  marred  by  the 
invincible  powers  of  nature.  He  had  been  quick  to 
recognise  the  similarity  of  the  phenomenon  to  that 
we  had  experienced  in  the  Daydream  when  running  the 
gauntlet  of  the  fog  circle,  and  he  sent  out  party  after 
party  to  explore  the  ring  of  mystery  and  to  come  back 
with  tales  of  its  magical  powers  of  inducing  sleep. 
Thus  was  he  soon  able  to  convince  the  archipelago  that 
the  failure  of  his  great  expedition  was  due,  not  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Isle  of  Devils,  but  to  the  forces  of 
nature.  He  had  in  his  own  eye  and  will  great  mes- 
meric power,  and  by  practice  was  able  to  develop  it 
into  something  that  he  could  exercise  at  pleasure. 
Then  he  made  public  exhibition  of  his  capacity  in  the 
various  islands.  He  threw  numbers  into  mesmeric 
sleep,  nor  would  he  or  could  he  release  them  from  its 
thrall.  They  became  his  willing  slaves  and  lived  only 
to  please  him.  A  milder  form  of  mesmeric  fascination 
he  used  in  order  to  rivet  his  despotism  on  his  armies. 
He  would  address  sections  of  them  with  bombastic  self- 
glorification  of  his  deeds  and  powers  and  with  flatteries 
of  them  and  their  glorious  courage.  His  personal 
magnetism  worked  upon  them  as  they  gazed  at  him, 
and  by  the  close  of  his  speech  he  had  them  enthralled 
to  his  will, 

It  was  not  long  before  he  was  feared  as  a  magician 


214  Limanora 

by  all  who  did  not  mesmerically  worship  him;  and  tens 
of  thousands  were  eager  to  do  the  most  wicked  and 
shameful  deeds,  if  only  he  bade  them.  Yet  he  dared 
not  shrink  from  another  fall  with  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Isle  of  Devils;  else  even  this  preternatural  fascination 
that  he  exercised  might  vanish.  For  years  he  racked 
the  wealth  of  the  islands  and  built  an  enormous  fleet  of 
still  more  powerful  fire-ships,  and  armed  it  with  still 
more  powerful  guns.  To  supply  the  funds  for  the  ex- 
pedition, those  who  were  not  trained  fighting  men  be- 
came slaves,  who  toiled  for  him  all  but  their  few  hours 
of  sleep.  Rebellion  against  this  galling  and  impover- 
ishing despotism  was  slowly  forming  in  the  breasts  of 
the  people.  Many  of  them  were  disappearing  myster- 
iously. They  had  betaken  themselves  to  unapproach- 
able caverns  like  Nookoo,  and  my  dreamer  of  Swoonarie 
was  arming  them  with  his  plague-pellets.  A  few  more 
months  and  revolution  would  have  broken  out  against 
the  despot,  and  he  at  least  would  have  perished;  but 
the  expedition  sailed  in  all  its  pomp,  again  deeply  im- 
pressing the  imaginations  of  the  islanders.  This  time 
he  had  taken  precautions  against  the  somni faction  of 
his  army  by  means  of  a  sleep-expelling  drug.  Every 
man  was  furnished  with  a  dose  of  it  to  take  as  soon  as 
they  came  near  the  dreaded  isle.  The  Ljlamo  had 
been  busy  for  some  time,  I  had  seen;  but  the  L,ima- 
norans  were  as  unconcerned  at  this  approach  as  at  the 
former  one.  What  new  defence  had  they  ?  I  could  see 
no  more  preparation  than  there  had  been  on  the  pre- 
vious occasion.  The  calm  which  prevailed  reassured 
me;  yet  soon  I  grew  restless  with  the  fear  that  this  fire- 
eating  cabin-boy  with  the  mystery  in  his  eyes  would 
sully  the  shores  of  Limanora  with  his  vulgar  ambitions. 
My  fear  became  alarm  as  I  saw  on  the  horizon  the 


Choktroo  2 1 5 

smoke  of  the  fleet  and  heard  through  the  idrovamolan 
the  shout  of  triumph  rise  from  the  army  when  the  peak 
of  IJlaroma  had  burst  on  their  view.  I  could  see  each 
man  drink  his  drug;  and  I  thought  that  all  was  lost. 
Suddenly  there  came  a  roar  from  every  ship;  and  I 
could  see  that  it  accompanied  a  plume  of  steam  that 
escaped  from  the  sides.  The  boiler  of  every  fire-ship 
had  evidently  been  punctured;  and  soon  I  could  see 
that  it  cost  those  on  board  unceasing  effort  to  keep 
afloat.  The  soldiers  were  about  to  take  to  the  boats 
when  a  deeper-mouthed  roar  numbed  every  other 
sound.  It  was  the  lilaran  at  work,  and  the  whole  fleet 
soon  vanished  over  the  horizon  before  its  compulsive 
blast. 

The  puncturing  had  been  accomplished  by  submarine 
action.  The  L,ilamo  had  sent  through  the  waters  their 
floating  batteries,  which  by  nicely  adjusted  weights  lay 
beneath  the  surface  right  on  the  track  of  the  fleet. 
The  electric  cables  by  which  they  were  secured  could 
shift  them  hither  and  thither;  and  through  them  im- 
mense force  could  be  applied,  sending  a  volley  of  keen 
darts  up  towards  whatever  iron  there  was  above  them. 
These  darts  had  entered  the  hulls  of  the  ships  just  be- 
neath the  water-line  and  made  their  way  into  the  iron 
of  the  engines;  one  or  other  told  on  the  boilers  and 
disabled  the  ships.  The  electric  floats  were  unseen  by 
the  expedition,  and  the  wounding  of  the  fleet  was  as 
mysterious  and  magical  as  the  sleep  had  been  on  the 
previous  attempt.  Panic  seized  on  every  soldier  and 
sailor,  and  they  thanked  their  gods  when  the  blast  of 
the  lilaran  hurried  them  to  the  shelving  beach  of  a  low 
island  and  they  heard  the  keels  grate  on  shingle  and 
sand.  They  scrambled  on  shore  through  the  surf  and 
found  shelter  from  the  wind  behind  the  mounds  that 


216  Limanora 

covered  the  former  fleet  or  under  their  gaunt  ribs  or 
sides. 

But  a  new  panic  overcame  them  when  they  dis- 
covered that  their  leader  was  gone  and  could  nowhere 
be  found.  Then  it  was  remembered  that  in  the  worst 
of  the  storm  which  blew  from  Lilaroma  a  giant  bird 
had  swooped  down  towards  his  ship  and  rested  for  a 
moment  on  the  platform,  where  he  stood  in  solitary 
meditation,  and  as  suddenly  soared  up  again.  It  was 
two  messengers  of  the  Lilamo  who  had  been  sent  in 
one  of  their  bird-shaped  air-ships  to  make  an  end 
of  these  warlike  expeditions.  They  had  alighted  be- 
side Choktroo,  and  by  the  powerful  means  they  com- 
manded had  sent  him  into  a  deep  sleep  in  spite  of  his 
drug;  they  tossed  him  into  their  air-ship  and  in  a  few 
moments  were  high  in  the  azure  rushing  before  the 
blast  of  the  lilaran.  Away  they  fled  with  him  all  day 
and  all  night  across  the  belt  of  fog,  and  having  reached 
the  outer  world  they  let  him  down  still  tranced  on  the 
shore  of  a  lonely  coral  islet  of  the  Pacific  close  to  a 
group  inhabited  by  a  savage  and  warlike  tribe. 
Choktroo  had  their  instincts  and  ambitions;  let  him 
master  the  savages  when  he  awakened.  A  wild  beast 
could  do  no  harm  amongst  wild  beasts. 

His  memory  and  example  haunted  the  archipelago 
like  an  evil  dream  for  generations.  Some  thought  that 
he  had  been  borne  aloft  to  heaven  by  a  messenger  of 
the  gods,  and  worshipped  him  as  divine;  his  cruel 
tyranny  and  wars  goaded  on  his  worshippers  to  wild 
fury  of  injustice  and  slaughter.  Others  who  were 
keener  of  brain  and  had  perceived  the  earthly  character 
of  their  leader  and  his  purposes  were  incited  to  like 
ambitions.  The  romance  of  his  life  was  glorified  in 
verse  and  prose  by  every  new  school  of  literature  and 


Choktroo  2 1 7 

fired  the  imaginations  of  boyhood  to  warlike  exploits. 
War,  pirac>\  plunder  came  to  be  the  favourite  forms 
of  dishonesty  in  the  archipelago.  It  was  marvellous 
how  much  the  peaceful  and  obscure  suffered  from  the 
romance  of  this  cabin-boy's  adventures. 

But  no  man  of  the  islands  dared  again  to  approach 
the  Isle  of  Devils.  Even  he  whom  so  many  of  them 
reputed  a  god  had  been  unable  to  break  in;  and  the 
mishap  to  the  last  fleet  had  been  more  bewildering 
than  that  to  the  first.  Magical  powers  were  possessed 
by  the  inhabitants  of  this  island  without  a  doubt; 
there  seemed  to  be  no  limit  to  their  transcendence  of 
the  order  of  nature.  Evil  they  were,  and  the  fear  of 
them  the  Broolyians  had  to  endure  in  patience.  Nor 
did  it  grow  less  from  generation  to  generation.  Fancy 
never  let  the  stories  of  the  defeat  of  the  great  Choktroo 
rest;  they  gathered  to  them  features  more  and  more 
terrible  to  contemplate.  A  halo  of  dread  and  mj'stery 
is  far  more  effective  as  a  fence  against  human  intru- 
sion than  a  halo  of  sanctity  or  even  divinity.  It  cows 
the  miscreant  and  the  brute  in  the  human  breast.  The 
duties  of  the  Lilamo  in  repelling  the  attacks  of  men 
would  vanish  for  hundreds  of  generations. 

For  Choktroo,  his  fate  was  a  romantic  contrast  to 
that  of  his  fame.  Reports  were  brought  in  by  the 
idrovamolan  or  by  flying  messengers  who  had  ventured 
over  the  belt  of  fog.  He  was  rescued  by  the  neigh- 
bouring tribe  before  he  starved  on  the  barren  islet, 
only  to  be  threatened  with  sacrifice  to  one  of  their 
gods.  A  missionary  who  had  some  influence  over  the 
heathen  arrived  at  the  moment  of  sacrifice  and  saved 
him.  After  learning  their  language  he  worked  his 
way  by  intrigues  and  assassinations  and  what  they 
thought  magic  up  to  the  headship  of  the  tribe.     When 


2l8 


Limanora 


he  had  made  himself  secure  in  his  power  over  them,  he 
built  a  great  fleet  of  war-canoes,  and,  after  mastering 
the  groups  of  islands  within  range  and  enlisting  their 
warriors  and  canoes  in  his  service,  he  set  sail  southward 
for  some  land  they  knew  not  of.  South  and  then  east 
the  fleet  made  way,  his  followers  still  unalarmed.  At 
last  appeared  the  circle  of  mystery  on  the  horizon.  He 
gave  the  word  to  row  forward  into  it;  but,  before  the 
command  had  reached  the  outermost  of  the  canoes,  he 
was  hurled  from  his  platform  into  the  sea,  and,  as  he 
rose  to  the  surface,  he  was  promptly  speared  by  his 
own  immediate  staff.  Round  swung  the  heads  of  the 
canoes  by  one  simultaneous  impulse.  Their  chief  had 
become  a  madman  to  think  of  entering  that  belt  of 
mystery;  and  away  they  paddled  for  very  life;  nor 
did  they  cease  their  frantic  efforts  till  the  dark  cloud 
had  sunk  beneath  the  horizon. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE    DUOMOVAMOLAN   OR    COSMOPHONE 


THOUGH  the  L,imanorans  calmly  pursued  their 
regular  employments  during  these  attempts  at 
invasion,  I  had  myself  felt  the  uneasy  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere that  precedes  and  presages  turmoil.  None  but 
the  Lilamo  were  engaged  in  preparation  for  defence; 
3^et  during  all  the  years  every  spirit  was  tense  and 
giving  out  its  energy  in  sympathy  to  this  section  of  the 
people.  There  was  a  palpable  loss  of  nervous  power  in 
the  community,  for  they  knew  that  by  accident  some 
joint  in  the  arrangements  might  fail  to  work  and  all  the 
defence  miscarry.  Not  till  the  bold  disturber  of  their 
progress  was  finally  disposed  of  did  the  tension  or  the 
leakage  of  nerve-energy  cease.  To  be  absorbed  in  mere 
war  was  to  them  the  hades  of  human  societ)',  and  to 
have  again  sealed  up  their  island  from  the  intrusion  of 
degenerate  souls  was  a  happy  epoch  in  their  history. 

While  the  whole  community  quivered  with  inward 
jubilance,  two  momentary  dangers  threatened  it:  it 
might  take  some  time  to  recover  its  equilibrium;  and 
its  thoughts  and  interests,  narrowed  by  the  necessity 
of  defence  against  this  threat  from  below,  might  be 
long  in  rising  to  the  true  cosmic  level.  vSonie  excep- 
tional  stimulus   was   needed    to   raise  their  lives  and 

2ig 


220  Limanora 

aims,  some  appeal  to  the  spirit,  which  would  set  them 
free  from  the  trammels  of  earth  and  all  deteriorative 
excitement.  Such  liberation  had  been  by  no  means 
uncommon  in  their  past,  but  no  occasion  for  it  had 
occurred  since  I  had  entered  on  my  novitiate,  except 
in  the  case  of  individuals  and  families;  then  I  had 
been  too  busy  with  my  training  or  too  distant  from  the 
household  concerned  to  notice  it. 

Now  it  was  to  be  a  national  purification  of  the  nature, 
and  I  was  to  share  in  it.  Would  this  be  a  religious 
ceremony,  a  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer,  such  as  I 
had  often  witnessed  in  my  old  home  after  great  national 
disasters  or  during  plague  or  famine?  I  had  seen  no 
churches  or  temples,  no  signs  of  religious  service,  no 
acts  of  private  worship.  I  had  never  heard  anyone 
speak  of  gods  or  priests  or  expiations.  Was  this  at 
last  to  be  the  revelation  of  the  inner  shrine,  into  which 
I  had  never  been  able  to  penetrate  ? 

I  had  not  long  to  wait  for  the  solution  of  my  prob- 
lems. Purposes  here  moved  to  conclusions  with  light- 
ning swiftness,  and  when  one  impulse  stirred  the 
people,  there  was  needed  no  heralding  to  mass  them 
in  the  desired  place.  I  found  myself  drawn  with  my 
proparents  and  Thyriel  and  her  household  towards  a 
massive  building  that  stood  upon  a  peak  far  up  the 
slopes  of  Lilaroma.  There  was  no  need  of  road  or 
steps  to  it;  wings  made  the  wide  air  the  highway. 
Yet  were  there  great  terraces  ramparting  the  sides  of 
the  peak,  and  from  the  highest  seawards  there  was  a 
marvellous  flight  of  steps  which,  when  the  clouds  hid 
Ljlaroma,  seemed  to  lead  up  into  heaven.  I  had  often 
seen  the  edifice  gleam  high  in  the  setting  sun,  yet  there 
were  so  many  temple-like  structures  on  the  shoulders 
and  peaks  of  the  giant  mountain  that  it  had  ceased  to 


The  Duomovamolan  221 

excite  inquiry.  Now  as  we  flew  towards  it  its  titanic 
proportions  and  jewelled  beauty  seemed  to  dominate 
all  the  lower  world.  The  building,  the  most  striking 
that  I  had  ever  seen,  raised  an  enormous  circular  dome 
of  crystal  to  the  sky,  and  around  this  were  innumerable 
smaller  structures,  which  elsewhere  would  have  bulked 
huge  to  the  eye.  As  we  drew  nearer,  I  saw  that  each 
crystal  cupola,  instead  of  crouching  low  upon  the  ter- 
race as  I  had  thought  at  first,  rose  upon  a  lofty  and 
massive  tower  of  great  strength.  What  I  had  taken 
for  smaller  and  higher  terraces  and  bastions  were  the 
walls  of  towers  and  square  citadels  that  seemed  built 
to  outlast  the  wars  of  Titans.  Solid  lava  they  were  of 
extraordinary  thickness.  There  was  nothing  here  of 
that  slenderness  and  delicacy  which  had  made  me  com- 
pare their  other  buildings  to  lace-work.  The  terraces 
and  flight  of  steps  I  had  seen  from  below  were  but  the 
outer  flanks  of  the  layer  on  layer  of  foundations  laid 
upon  the  plateau  to  save  the  structure  from  all  but  the 
deepest-sourced  tremors. 

As  we  entered  the  mighty  portal,  I  felt  that  no 
storm  or  earthquake  could  move  it.  It  seemed  a  city 
sculptured  out  of  the  solid  rock;  but,  as  soon  as  we 
were  in,  the  sense  of  this  massiveness  vanished  and  the 
whole  appeared  as  we  looked  up  fairy-like  and  gossa- 
mer. In  any  one  of  the  vast  temples  nothing  but  a 
film  seemed  to  separate  us  from  the  azure  sky.  In  the 
smaller  towers  we  gazed  up  a  dark  shaft  roofed  by  a 
circle  of  sky,  and  the  very  stars  shone  out  upon  our 
vision  by  day,  so  palpable  was  the  column  of  darkness 
above  us. 

We  soon  settled  in  our  hanging  rests  under  the  great 
central  dome.  Around  us  were  thousands  hung  in 
mid-air  in  different  attitudes  of  rest.     Yet  the  building 


222  Limanora 

sounded  empty,  so  vast  was  it  and  so  silent  were  all. 
The  slightest  whisper  rang  across  its  great  untram- 
melled spaces  with  the  sharpness  of  a  word  beside  us. 
Not  a  column  or  beam  or  ornament  broke  the  harmon- 
ious simplicity  of  the  spacious  circle  from  vault  to  floor, 
from  side  to  side.  Everyone  by  instinct  kept  still;  for 
the  mere  rustle  of  a  wing  appalled  by  its  far-reaching 
effect.  We  even  held  our  breath  lest  the  sound  should 
break  the  colossal  stillness.  To  me  it  seemed  for  a 
time  frozen  silence. 

I  soon  perceived  that  there  was  no  effort  in  the  self- 
repression  of  my  neighbours'  movements.  They  were 
entranced,  their  heads  erect  as  if  catching  the  echo  of 
some  far-off  music.  To  me  there  was  as  deep  stillness 
as  before.  I  listened  intently,  but  felt  no  change  ex- 
cept a  slight  exhilaration;  an  electric  influence  was 
pulsing  around.  To  the  electric  sense  in  them  some 
great  harmony  was  appealing.  Yet  there  was  more 
than  this;  for  their  eyes  were  fixed  intently  on  the 
dome.  I  looked  up  and  felt  awestruck.  There  on  a 
scale  that  seemed  to  match  the  sky  of  night  I  saw 
enacting  the  evolution  of  a  universe.  In  the  blue  vault 
a  great  sphere  of  glowing  vapour  was  whirling  round; 
from  it  sprang  off  huge  concentric  rings,  that  one  after 
the  other,  themselves  became  whirling  spheres  ablaze 
with  the  intensity  of  white  heat.  Step  by  step  a  system 
of  earths  revolving  round  a  central  sun  was  developed. 
On  one  as  it  cooled  we  could  see  life  appear  and  grow 
varied,  then  fade  away  and  finally  vanish.  Before  the 
last  tragedy  had  closed,  another  had  taken  up  the 
strain  of  existence,  had  run  its  course  upon  the  globe, 
and  a  third  had  stepped  into  the  ranks  of  life-bearers. 
The  torch  of  generation  was  passed  on  from  orbit  to 
orbit,  the  central  luminary  ever  dimming  its  fires  till 


The  Duomovamolan  223 

at  last  the  system  wheeled  on  through  darkness,  seem- 
ing to  have  no  purpose  in  the  universe;  but  just  as 
the  last  light  nickered  and  began  to  vanish  from  the 
surface  of  the  sun,  out  of  the  darkness  seemed  to  rush 
another  dead  universe;  through  the  eternities  the  two 
had  been  approaching  nearer  and  nearer,  drawn  by 
their  common  doom.  In  a  moment  they  had  crashed 
together  and  out  of  the  collision  came  a  mist  of  fire, 
that  soon  by  whirling  in  space  became  again  another 
and  a  larger  sphere  of  glowing  vapour. 

How  impressive  was  this  reincarnation  of  worlds! 
Deeper  and  deeper  the  scene  sank  into  the  spirit,  as 
the  electric  thrill  which  accompanied  the  earlier  steps 
of  the  process  passed  into  dim-echoing  music,  translat- 
ing all  we  saw  into  sounds.     A  singular  feature  of  their 
music  was  that  it  was  never  produced  in  the  same  room 
in  which  it  was  to  be  listened  to.     The  machinery  and 
the  orchestra  drown  by  their  clack  and  clamour  the 
soft  footfalls  of  harmony  that  are  the  only  true  spirit 
of  music;  this  was  their  reason.     They  had  a  contriv- 
ance in   every   large  room,   a  huge-mouthed  tube  by 
which  inflowing  music  was  softened  or  strengthened 
and  which  could   if  need  be  raise  a  whisper  into  a 
thunder-peal;  in  this  was  a  series  of  keys  or  stops,  by 
which  any  sound  coming  through  it  could  be  modu- 
lated.     One   key   could    make   the   apparatus   sound- 
proof by  filling  its  throat  with  a  pledget  of  a  peculiar 
fibrous  metal  they  had.     One  series  could  wring  out 
the  harshness  of  any  sound  till   it  became  soft  as  a 
much-reverberated    echo.     A    second    magnified   any 
sound,  however  soft,  to  the  required  loudness  and  vol- 
ume, and  the  whole  was  controlled  by  a  minute  key- 
board which  could  be  held  in  the  hand  and  moved  to 
any  part  of  the  room. 


224  Limanora 

In  this  vast  auditorium  I  could  not  see  where  the 
key-board  was  managed;  but  he  must  have  been  a 
poet-musician  who  manipulated  it,  so  delicately  did  the 
volume  of  sound  adapt  itself  to  the  mood  of  those  who 
watched  the  growth  and  decay  of  worlds.  Now  it 
swelled  with  the  collision  into  thunderous  harmony; 
again  as  a  crisis  approached  in  the  tragedy  it  fell  to  the 
low  music  of  far-echoing  nature-sounds.  At  times  this 
marvellous  opera  of  universes  died  away  to  my  hear- 
ing; yet  my  neighbours  lay  in  trance  as  if  still  catching 
harmonies  that  mastered  the  soul.  I  knew  nothing  but 
the  vague  electric  thrill  that  passes  through  the  nature 
at  some  great  thought.  Harmonies  as  colossal  touched 
their  electric  sense  as  those  which  before  had  come 
through  their  hearing.  I  longed  to  follow  them  into 
those  spheres  of  melodious  being  that  were  still  beyond 
me. 

I  came  afterwards  to  know  the  astronomic  family  that 
had  arranged  these  wonderful  effects  upon  the  soul 
through  the  various  senses,,  and  I  saw  the  mechanism 
by  which  they  were  contrived.  Its  simplicity  was  what 
struck  me  most,  when  I  remembered  how  complicated 
were  the  sensuous  modes  of  appeal  to  the  spirit.  Out 
of  innumerable  sonoscripts  and  electrographs  impressed 
by  the  world  of  stars  upon  their  records,  they  had 
selected  those  that  would  fit  together  and  raise  the 
souls  of  the  listeners  to  the  sublimity  of  seeing  the 
infinite  cosmos. 

This  daylight  representation  of  the  music  of  the 
spheres  was  but  a  prelude  to  a  more  impressive  effect 
as  night  fell.  By  some  ingenious  mechanism  the  im- 
mense dome  was  changed;  instead  of  a  semi-opaque 
crystal,  on  which  could  be  enacted  a  mimic  evolution 
of  systems,  there  slid  into  its  place  an  enormous  lens, 


The  Duomovamolan  225 

which  gathered  the  sky  ten  thousand  thousand  times 
magnified  into  the  focus  of  a  smaller  lens;  and  upon 
this  was  turned  another  magnifier,  which  threw  upon 
some  light-bearing  film  in  front  of  us  a  picture  of  the 
sky  a  million  million  times  the  size  of  what  appeared  to 
the  unaided  eye.  Here  we  saw  enacting  the  infinite 
tragedy  of  the  cosmos.  We  could  turn  aside  and  view 
the  azure  above  us  strewn  with  its  silver  eyes,  and  the 
contrast  raised  the  soul  to  unknown  heights  of  sub- 
limity. In  the  picture  the  worlds  lived  and  moved, 
and  the  number  of  those  that  filled  the  spaces  behind 
was  past  all  counting;  we  seemed  to  have  drawn  as 
near  to  some  of  the  golden  centres  of  systems  as  light- 
ning flight  from  the  beginning  of  our  earth  would  have 
brought  us. 

And  what  gave  transcendent  sublimity  to  the  scene 
was  the  strange  music  that  accompanied  it.  By  means 
of  the  duomovamolan,  a  marvellous  instrument  which 
reversed  the  processes  of  Oolorefa,  we  heard  the  har- 
mony that  the  worlds  made  in  their  motions.  As  they 
moved  across  our  lens  and  round  and  across  one  another, 
their  movements,  enormously  magnified,  awakened 
such  harmony  of  sounds  as  never  embodied  soul  had 
heard.  Their  flight  and  their  magnetism  affected  an 
irelium  film  in  such  a  way  that  the  complicated  lines 
and  curves  and  figures  produced  upon  it  translated 
themselves  into  the  music  which  would  have  produced 
these  figures  in  the  ooloran.  This  people  had  long 
practised  architecture  by  music  in  Oolorefa  before  they 
thought  of  attempting  the  reverse  process  and  convert- 
ing form  and  colour  into  melody;  but  once  thought 
of,  it  was  soon  accomplished,  and  the  oorolan  was  the 
result.  The  shadowy  figures  which  any  melody  pro- 
duced could  be  made  themselves  to  reproduce  it. 


226  Limanora 

From  the  use  of  this  little  instrument  it  came  to  be 
seen  that  their  telescopes  could  by  a  little  modifica- 
tion and  addition  be  made  to  tell  out  in  music  the 
scenes  they  witnessed  and  recorded.  Step  by  step  the 
astronomic  families  advanced  till  at  last  they  reached 
the  wonderful  duomovamolan,  or  cosmophone,  which, 
facing  the  heavens  unbrokenly  for  generations,  stored 
up  the  music  of  the  spheres  in  their  various  changes. 
It  was  this  instrument  we  heard  as  we  gazed  into  the 
hitherto  unfathomed  depths  of  night.  The  worlds 
themselves  in  their  motion  played  upon  it,  and  through 
it  upon  onr  souls.  No  human  thought  could  have  con- 
ceived the  marvels  of  harmony  that  rang  through  the 
great  auditorium.  We  felt  as  if  we  had  been  present  at 
the  creation  of  the  universe  and  our  thoughts  ranged 
through  infinite  space.  A  dream  of  the  most  tremen- 
dous kind  was  being  enacted  before  our  waking  senses. 
How  poor  seemed  the  whole  long  history  of  life  upon 
our  earth!  Thought  was  the  only  element  in  us  akin 
with  infinity  or  like  to  last  through  eternity,  the 
thought  that  could  thus  span  the  abysses  between  the 
systems  of  worlds  and  comprehend  these  cosmic  melo- 
dies still  ringing  in  our  ears. 

When  the  treasured- up  music  of  the  spheric  move- 
ments of  the  past  ceased,  the  night  itself,  the  very  sky 
we  were  contemplating  began  to  stir  fresh  harmonies 
through  the  lenses  of  the  subsidiary  towers.  We 
gazed,  and  the  stars  in  their  silver  motions,  motions 
unnoticed  by  the  naked  eye,  told  their  tale  in  sweet 
harmony.  These  new  symphonies  were  simpler  than 
the  operas  of  creation  and  decadence  that  we  had  been 
listening  to  and,  after  those  titanic  effects,  seemed 
almost  monotonous,  so  few  complications  had  they. 
They  soothed  the  souls  lost  in  the  sublimities  of  in- 


The  Duomovamolan  227 

finite  space  and  time  and  we  came  gentlier  down  to 
the  earth  on  which  our  life  was  cast.  We  still  trod 
on  air,  our  heads  were  still  amongst  the  stars,  but  the 
earth  was  near  us  and  counted  as  one  of  the  myriad 
worlds. 

As  night  swung  towards  the  mid-vault,  the  music 
faded  and  seemed  to  sound  from  far  valleys.  At  last  it 
sank  into  a  lullaby,  the  lullaby  of  slow-moving  constel- 
lations. Sleep  came  on  me  by  unconscious,  scarce- 
heard  footfalls,  and  through  its  magic  portal  the  uni- 
verse of  dreams  appeared.  Amongst  the  stars  I  flew, 
never-resting,  eager  to  visit  and  know  all.  Here  I 
communed  with  beings  so  like  me  and  yet  so  far  above 
me  that  I  yearned  to  remain  with  them;  but  on  I  had 
to  speed.  Then  I  rested  on  a  world  still  dominated  by 
the  rudimentary  stages  of  life-energy,  and  so  repulsive 
were  the  sights  and  sounds  there  that  I  fled  shrieking 
from  it.  Next  came  a  sphere  so  filmy  and  translucent 
I  scarcely  knew  how  it  persisted  in  tiding  the  storms 
of  space;  yet  here,  too,  was  life,  life  so  noble,  so  im- 
material, that  I  felt  ashamed  of  my  body  and  its  sensu- 
ous methods  of  knowledge;  so  ethereal  were  the  beings 
there  that  the  common  forces  of  gravitation  and  attrac- 
tion seemed  to  have  no  power  over  them ;  so  far  below 
them  did  I  feel  myself  to  be  in  the  process  of  evolution 
that  I  had  not  the  heart  to  remain.  Away  into  space 
I  winged,  till  a  dark  orb  drew  me  towards  it,  shone  on 
by  suns  of  the  most  fantastic  and  ill-omened  colours. 
Here,  too,  was  a  manhood  not  unlike  that  of  earth,  yet 
so  sinister  that  it  seemed  an  orb  of  devils;  the  forms 
were  graceful;  the  faces  had  a  beauty  of  their  own, 
but  shone  with  such  evil  meaning  that  they  fascinated 
like  snakes;  amongst  them  I  could  recognise  the  great 
conquerors  and   monarchs   and    warriors  and  colossal 


228  Limanora 

criminals  whose  faces  or  the  representations  of  whose 
faces  I   had   seen   upon  earth;  war  and  pillage  were 
their  occupations;    cunning  and  force,  hypocrisy  and 
arrogance,  were  their  weapons.     In  horror  I  fled  from 
the  sight  of  their  internecine  passions  and  into  the 
depths  of  the  night  I  sped  on.     So  varied  was  the  con- 
stitution of  the  orbs  that  I  approached,  so  marvellous 
the  range  of  the  kinds  of  beings  inhabiting  them,  that 
my  mind  seemed  to  sink  under  the  task  of  imagining 
them.     Everything    was  in  transition,   there  was  no 
rest  for  any  form  of  energy  in  the  cosmos.     On  it  must 
sweep  towards  a  higher  transformation  or  a  lower.     I 
saw  beings  that  seemed  to  be  the  very  acme  of  crea- 
tion, so  beautiful  and  noble  were  they,  so  purged  of 
all  grossness  and  materiality;  yet  ever  beyond  them  I 
found  some  form  they  looked  up  to  and  yearned  to 
reach.     Below  me  I  could  see  on  endless  orbs  lower 
and  lower  kinds  of  energy  receding  into  darker  night, 
yet   ever  pressing  upwards,  step  by  step.     What  an 
eternity  of  ascent  was  before  them !     Looking  up,  my 
soul  was  drawn  to  some  great  centre  my  eyes  could  not 
discern;  the  exhilarant  force  seemed  to  give  me  wings 
finer  and  nobler  than  those  of  my  body.     With  infinite 
longing  I  left  my  material  part  behind  floating  slowly 
in  space.     A  trance  came  upon  me  as  I  flew  upwards 
with  lightning  speed  and  I  swooned  with  the  ecstasy 
of  final  achievement. 

Then  I  awoke,  still  lying  in  my  pendulous  rest. 
Morning  had  broken  and  the  cosmic  strains  had  died 
away.  This  dream-flight  had  been  but  the  climax  of 
the  purification.  Such  music,  such  electric  impulse 
had  been  poured  about  us  as  we  slept,  that  our  spirits 
could  not  but  accomplish  these  imaginary  voyages 
through  space  and  time.     Without   this  sublime  up- 


The  Duomovamolan  229 

lifting  into  the  diviner  realms  of  ether  our  souls  might 
have  fallen  back  to  the  mean  purposes  and  ambitions 
of  earth  induced  by  the  fears  of  the  invasion  and  the 
necessities  of  its  repulse.  Now  we  walked  like  angels 
amongst  men,  a  wall  of  eternity  separating  us  from  the 
gross  needs  of  war  and  defence.  We  were  again  on 
the  upward  path  that  leads  towards  the  highest,  and, 
purified  and  ennobled,  were  eager  again  for  the  imme- 
diate duties  of  life. 

Such  purifications  of  the  soul  occurred  amongst  the 
community  as  a  whole  whenever  any  influence  tended 
to  drag  it  down  to  a  lower  plane.  Their  eyes  were 
drawn  downwards;  they  had  again  to  be  turned  to  the 
goal  of  all  energy.  Victory  over  such  a  conqueror  as 
Choktroo  had  to  be  given  its  due  insignificant  propor- 
tion in  the  results  and  aims  of  life,  else  it  might  atavise 
some  of  their  spirits  and  bring  to  life  ambitions  buried 
for  long  ages.  One  night's  voyage  amongst  the  in- 
finities was  enough  to  throw  human  conquests,  however 
great  they  might  seem,  into  pettiness  and  oblivion. 
Thus  the  evil  spirit  such  events  might  raise  was  exor- 
cised, and  yet  the  sensuous  power  of  the  music  by 
which  the  exorcism  was  achieved  was  evaded.  Mere 
music,  such  as  I  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  with 
luxurious  passion  in  my  old  home,  would  have  let  our 
spirits,  after  raising  them  to  the  heights  of  ecstas)', 
fall  crashing  into  the  world  of  commonplace  as  soon  as 
it  ceased;  but  this  cosmophonic  harmony  permanently 
soothed  and  elevated  the  embruted  soul.  It  implanted 
thoughts  so  high  that  it  seemed  sacrilege  to  return  to 
any  lower  plane. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THEIR  HEAVEN  AND  THEIR  HELL, 

THE  race  returned  to  its  daily  life,  purified  and 
elevated.  The  danger  of  intrusion  upon  their 
upward  struggle  had  called  out  on  wonted  vigour;  and 
the  expulsion  of  the  grosser  elements  and  ambitions 
which  threatened  to  accompany  this  had  resulted  in 
clear  gain  for  their  progress.  The  pace  at  which  they 
developed  greatly  quickened;  and  we  felt  the  pulses  of 
the  race  beat  with  the  eagerness  of  prevision.  Every 
new  age  had  accelerated  its  advance  till  it  seemed  to 
have  breasted  all  possibility,  yet  as  the  step  grew 
swifter  and  swifter  the  lightning  swiftness  of  a  far  past 
seemed  to  them  but  a  snail's  pace.  Back  the  darkness 
of  the  future  was  pushed,  and  new  vistas  opened  where 
the  black  wall  of  fate  had  seemed  to  face  them. 

One  of  the  most  striking  proofs  of  their  advancement 
was  to  them  the  rapidly  developing  love  and  power 
of  foreseeing.  They  seemed  to  live  in  the  future,  and 
that  future  was  an  ever-receding  circle  like  the  horizon 
ahead  of  them,  widening  and  widening  as  the}7  rose 
above  mere  earth  necessities.  A  considerable  section 
of  their  community  was  devoted  to  pioneering  for  the 
race,  exploring  the  possibilities  of  the  future;  and 
whenever  there  was  a  danger  that  the  energy  of  de- 

230 


Their  Heaven  and  their  Hell     231 

velopment  would  slacken  the  imaginations  of  the  youth 
were  fired  by  a  sight  of  all  that  they  might  be. 

One  of  the  chief  duties  of  the  imaginative  pioneers  of 
the  race  was  to  prepare  a  visiou  of  the  time  to  come 
that  would  at  once  appeal  to  the  youthful  fancy  and 
fire  it  to  renewed  effort;  for  often  in  a  generation  a 
family  or  individual  would  become  so  absorbed  in 
a  special  pursuit  that  the  idea  of  the  whole  was  ob- 
scured; and  to  prevent  or  obviate  this  false  perspect- 
ive imaginative  prevision  was  ever  and  again  needed. 
An  easy  bird's-eye  view  of  all  that  the  race  might 
become  was  the  best  means  of  attaining  this. 

Another  magnificent  edifice  was  set  apart  for  this 
purpose,  again  on  the  slopes  of  Lilaroma,  not  to  give 
outlook,  but  merely  to  draw  all  eyes.  It  was  perhaps 
the  most  impressive  of  the  great  buildings  of  Limanora; 
so  vast  were  its  proportions  that  it  seemed  almost  a 
city  in  itself;  for  in  huge  subsidiary  halls  every  phase 
of  the  possibilities  of  their  civilisation  was  represented. 
These  were  dwarfed  by  the  central  hall,  which  seemed 
large  enough  to  contain  the  whole  of  them.  In  it  all 
the  phases  of  the  future  were  focussed  in  what  they 
called  the  mornalan,  or  time-telescope.  This  made  the 
pictures  of  what  they  might  become  live  and  move 
before  the  eyes  of  the  gazers,  who  as  they  gazed  through 
one  of  the  many  thousand  eye-pieces  seemed  to  look 
upon  life  itself  in  its  noblest  ideals. 

My  first  visit  to  the  great  building, which  they  called 
Terralona,  or  millenarium,  was  not  long  after  the  final 
repulse  of  Choktroo.  Into  the  younger  and  less  puri- 
fied hearts  of  the  community  the  idea  of  warlike  glory 
had  returned  with  some  force,  even  though  we  realised 
intellectually  how  shallow  and  false  and  retrograde  it 
was.      The   introduction    to   what    I    might    call    the 


232  Limanora 

heaven  of  the  race  ought  to  have  come  naturally  later 
in  life,  when  we  had  passed  completely  out  of  pupilage 
and  assumed  the  full  duties  and  privileges  of  maturity; 
but  it  seemed  necessary  to  erase  from  our  emotions 
this  atavistic  taint  that  the  appearance  of  Choktroo  and 
his  expeditions  had  begotten  in  us.  The  national  puri- 
fication had  succeeded  in  making  earthly  ambitions 
seem  insignificant,  but  as  We  settled  down  again  to  our 
pursuits  the  awe  that  the  cosmophone  had  bred  in  us 
grew  fainter.  The  world  narrowed  into  a  prison- 
house,  and  our  daily  duties  forced  a  recoil  to  a  wider 
sphere  of  ambitions,  such  as  we  had  seen  out  in  the 
archipelago  in  the  masterful  wars  so  lately  witnessed. 
It  was  time,  indeed,  that  some  of  us  were  brought  into 
the  presence  of  the  immediate  ideals  of  the  race  towards 
which  they  were  as  a  whole  struggling. 

We  were  now  to  enter  upon  a  new  epoch  of  our 
existence  and  to  know  the  wider  heaven  in  which  our 
own  special  pursuits  took  their  orbit.  We  were  there- 
after to  drink  at  the  purer  fountains  of  inspiration,  to 
know  the  rewards  of  all  our  struggles,  the  possibilities 
that  lay  within  the  reach  of  a  measurable  number  of 
years. 

Up  through  the  morning  air  we  flew,  exhilarate  with 
the  wine  of  healthy  life,  joyous  in  anticipation.  My 
proparents  were  with  us,  and  explained  in  answer  to 
our  inquiries  the  character  of  the  building  we  were  to 
visit.  It  absorbed  the  best  energies  of  some  of  the  most 
imaginative  and  artistic  families  of  the  island.  They 
were  ever  forging  ahead  of  their  own  work.  Like  life, 
their  art  never  rested.  What  they  imagined  to-day 
grew  familiar  or  even  tame  to-morrow.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  the  inside  of  the  edifice  was  never  two 
days  alike,  and  the  most  frequent  visitor  never  found 


Their  Heaven  and  their  Hell     2 


OJ 


it  monotonous.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  a  fixed 
paradise  for  any  race;  it  varied,  it  must  vary,  with 
every  development  or  retrogression  of  its  members. 
Heaven  was  merely  the  brightest  ideal  that  a  people 
could  imagine  for  itself;  and  the  heaven  of  a  highly 
progressive  race  was  rapidly  antiquated,  and  in  the 
long  flight  of  ages  came  to  neighbour  their  hell.  It  is 
like  climbing  a  mountain;  the  shining  peak  we  long  to 
attain  as  we  start  from  the  plains  at  dawn  is  found  to 
be  but  a  lower  ridge  of  plateau  which  conceals  the 
gleam  of  higher  snows;  these  again  when  reached  are 
found  to  be  overtopped  by  still  higher  peaks.  The  dif- 
ference is  that  in  truly  advancing  human  life  the  pro- 
cess seems  unending.  There  is  no  spiritual  ambition, 
no  ideal,  no  creed,  no  ethical  code,  but  when  realised 
in  practice  is  found  to  reveal  something  higher  still 
to  long  for  and  realise.  A  stationary  heaven  means  a 
stagnant  civilisation. 

Onwards  we  sped  as  we  discussed  or  listened,  ever 
nearer  to  the  vast  pile  of  buildings  that  was  our  goal. 
We  who  had  never  been  inside  or  known  its  purpose 
tingled  with  expectation.  Even  our  elders,  we  could 
see,  were  eager  and  alert  with  anticipated  pleasure. 
They  were  sure  to  see  some  new  and  striking  features 
in  the  fore-picture. 

It  was  with  great  awe  that  we  found  ourselves  within 
Terralona;  for  we  had  entered  the  great  central  hall 
at  once,  without  any  attempt  to  study  the  separate 
sections  of  the  experiments  in  progress  depicted  in  the 
subsidiary  halls.  It  was  more  impressive  in  its  pro- 
portions and  size  than  any  I  had  yet  seen,  and  was 
dimly  lit  with  that  strange,  diffusive,  ceutreless  light 
of  which  they  had  command.  In  no  one  part  was 
the  light  brightest,  so  that  it  was   impossible  to  say 


234  Limanora 

whence  it  came  or  how  it  was  produced.  The  roof 
rose  so  high  and  the  walls  were  so  far  apart  that  we 
found  flight  easy  inside;  and  there  were  platforms  all 
round  for  leaping  into  the  air  and  taking  flight.  Along 
the  farther  wall  we  could  see  many  Uniauoraus  hover- 
ing, like  butterflies  that  alight  for  a  moment  and  then 
flit  to  another  flower.  There  were  also  rising  to  the 
roof  hundreds  of  tiers  of  different  kinds  of  rests. 

What  these  were  for  I  could  not  conjecture,  unless 
they  were  placed  for  easy  flight.  At  length  we  reached 
that  end  of  the  building  and  saw  that  every  rest  was 
placed  so  as  to  bring  the  eyes  level  with  a  large  lens 
set  in  the  wall.  We  each  mounted  into  one  of  them, 
and  I  set  my  face  against  the  smooth  transparency. 
The  sight  that  met  me  I  cannot  even  at  this  distance 
describe.  There  seemed  to  be  miles  and  miles  of  space 
beyond  filled  with  a  representation  of  an  island  which 
I  soon  recognised  as  Limanora;  but  it  seemed  to  be 
afloat  in  the  azure  of  the  sky,  and  from  it  a  pathway  of 
silken  threads  of  light  led  upwards  to  the  stars,  which 
floated  within  neighbourly  distance  of  it.  Busy  travel- 
lers sped  up  and  down  the  climbing  flightway  with  a 
swiftness  that  almost  obscured  their  form  and  size.  It 
was  only  when  they  rested  at  either  goal  that  I  could 
see  their  features  or  study  their  nature.  They  were 
Limanorans,  yet  completely  transformed.  The  tissue 
of  their  bodies  seemed  like  light  itself,  so  transparent 
and  filmy  was  it.  Their  wings  seemed  a  part  of  them- 
selves, and  their  flight  was  as  easy  as  a  swallow's. 
They  moved  through  the  air  like  shreds  of  sunlight  or 
animated  snowfflakes,  with  power  to  fly  up  or  down, 
often  at  lightning  speed.  In  their  faces  were  none  of 
the  deep  shadows  of  baffled  thought  or  blind  emotion, 
but  they  seemed  supremely  happy  in  their  enfranchise- 


Their  Heaven  and  their  Hell     235 

ment  from  earth.  Yet  they  were  but  human,  only  a 
few  steps  removed  from  the  humanity  I  saw  around 
me.  They  had  still  upon  their  faces  the  look  of  pity 
so  frequent  amongst  the  L,imanorans  when  they  gazed 
out  on  the  men  and  life  of  other  lands;  but  it  was  only 
when  they  gazed  or  travelled  downwards  that  this  took 
the  place  of  the  serene  calm  which  marked  them  out  as 
sages.  At  times  an  agitation  marked  their  gait  as  they 
set  out  on  the  gauzy  pathway  of  the  stars.  I  could 
feel  that  there  was  still  a  world  beyond  that  which  they 
had  reached,  and  that  towards  this  they  must  progress 
with  eager  thought  and  effort. 

It  was  the  inhabitants  of  other  stars  that  they 
were  trying  to  emulate  or  gain  as  friends.  They  could 
live  in  the  intervening  ether  and  found  movement 
through  it  rapid  as  thought.  Their  highest  wishes, 
the  subjects  of  their  imagination,  encountered  little 
obstacle  or  friction  in  the  accomplishment.  They  were 
evidently  nearer  omnipotence  over  the  forces  around 
them  than  they  had  ever  been.  Their  bodies  were  so 
much  dematerialised  that  they  were  not  far  from  the 
state  and  texture  of  their  souls.  Thought  was  not 
clogged  with  an  earthy  matter  so  different  from  itself 
as  to  hold  it  down  till  freed  by  death.  Yet  I  could 
see  that  there  were  limits  to  their  actions.  The  forces 
of  other  worlds  and  the  conditions  of  interstellar  space 
narrowed  and  checked  their  activity.  They  could  not 
yet  create;  they  could  only  transform  what  already 
existed,  for  there  I  saw  one  pair  moulding  a  creature 
perfect  according  to  their  ideals  and  trying  to  breathe 
life  into  it,  and  not  yet  could  they  know  the  centre  of 
all  being.     The  path  was  still  upwards  and  onwards. 

Their  activity  was  no  longer  restricted  to  the  imme- 
diate confines  of  the  earth.      Beyond  and  above  it  they 


236  Limanora 

soared  till  it  became  an  insignificant  speck  of  light  in 
the  azure,  busily  exploring  the  universes  that  strewed 
infinity  and  finding  out  the  higher  and  ever  higher  life 
that  inhabited  them.  I  could  see  them  marking  on 
their  itineraries  of  the  sky  the  orbs  to  be  avoided  for 
their  degenerate  or  degraded  forms  of  life  or  energy. 
Every  grade  of  existence  was  found  and  indicated  by 
brighter  light  or  deeper  shadow.  They  loved  to  linger 
over  those  orbs  whose  dwellers  were  but  a  step  above 
them,  watching  their  actions  and  thoughts  and  learn- 
ing their  higher  ambitions.  At  a  distance  they  hovered 
over  the  worlds  of  beings  many  stages  beyond  them  in 
the  evolution  of  energy,  afraid  lest  they  might  be  re- 
pulsed as  degenerate.  As  they  watched,  their  longing 
stud}-  helped  them  to  rise  more  rapidly  in  the  scale  of 
being,  and  back  they  wrould  come  to  Limanora  with 
new  thoughts  and  methods  and  set  themselves  thus 
equipped  to  work  out  with  increasing  pace  their  own 
evolution. 

This  vast  widening  of  their  horizon  was  evidently 
an  era  in  their  history,  it  added  such  lightning  swift- 
ness to  their  rise  in  the  scale  of  existence,  it  gave  them 
such  power  of  fulfilling  whatever  they  designed  or 
even  imagined.  Nobler  and  nobler  ideals  remained  to 
be  discovered  in  every  corner  of  the  cosmos.  They 
had  only  to  sail  out  and  investigate,  and  then,  return- 
ing with  higher  thoughts  and  ways  of  life,  mould  their 
being  to  them.  And  to  die, — what  was  it  now  but  to 
slough  off  a  trammelling  form?  Death  was  to  them 
an  ecstasy.  Every  moment  of  advance  was  to  them  a 
death,  a  death  of  the  old,  a  realisation  of  the  nobler 
and  higher. 

Such  was  the  representation  I  watched  through  my 
optic  glass:    for   my    proparents   interpreted    what   I 


Their  Heaven  and  Their  Hell     237 

saw,  and  showed  me  the  spiritual  meaning  of  this  cos- 
morama  of  the  future.  The  details  of  the  living 
picture  I  had  not  time  to  mark;  nor  were  my  guard- 
ians willing  that  these  should  distract  my  attention 
from  the  central  ideas;  they  emphasised  the  guiding 
principles  of  the  new  life  we  might  perhaps  soon  lead, 
and  the  glory  of  it  overcame  my  earth-born  ambitions. 
What  a  pitiful  figure  did  Choktroo  and  his  armies  and 
fleets  seem  in  comparison  with  such  a  life!  All  the 
great  conquerors  and  heroes  of  earth  were  pigmies  seen 
in  a  light  like  this,  slaves  to  brute  longings  and  ambi- 
tions. I  grew  ashamed  of  ever  having  harboured  any- 
thing but  contempt  for  even  the  greatest  career  of 
mortal  upon  earth. 

Nor  yet  were  we  done  with  our  cure.  The  imagina- 
tive artists  had  filled  another  and  complementary  edifice 
with  living  pictures  of  all  that  by  means  of  horror  could 
drive  us  forward  on  the  path  of  progress.  It  was  called 
Ciralaison,  or  the  museum  of  terrors.  I  had  often  heard 
of  it  and  had  imagined  it  as  a  place  of  unending  torture, 
a  Limanoran  and  rationalised  version  of  the  hell  of 
Christendom,  and  looked  forward  with  much  loathing 
and  curiosity  to  the  sight  of  it.  We  were  taught  that 
this  was  no  imaginary  place,  but  the  too  real  result  of 
all  retrogression  and  encouragement  of  atavism,  and 
that  there  was  nothing  supernatural  in  it,  but  that  it 
was  the  natural  outcome  of  all  lapses  from  the  existing 
ethical  path  of  advance.  It  was  the  contrivance  of 
nature  herself  to  prevent  degeneration. 

As  I  had  read  Dante's  Inferno,  it  was  easy  for  me  to 
map  out  the  features  of  Ciralaison.  I  knew  the  vices 
and  faults  they  most  shrank  from,  and  these  would 
define  their  own  natural  punishments.  As  we  winged 
our  way  towards  the  sombre  edifice,  perched,  strangely 


o 


8  Limanora 


enough,  upon  one  of  the  most  prominent  spurs  of  L,ila- 
roma  that  beetled  over  the  sea,  I  let  my  mind  wander 
over  what  was  soon  to  meet  my  eyes;  pictured  a 
place  of  intense  woe,  full  of  the  horrors  of  a  mediaeval 
place  of  torture:  I  could  almost  imagine  I  heard  the 
weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

We  entered  the  gloomy  porch  and  passed  into  the 
central  hall;  it  was  almost  the  exact  counterpart  of 
Terralona,  except  that  there  was  no  brilliant  sugges- 
tion of  all  that  was  beautiful  and  noble.  There  was 
the  same  dim  suffusion  of  light,  the  same  lofty  wall  of 
lenses  with  rests,  the  same  series  of  flight  platforms 
round  the  other  walls.  With  some  precipitancy  I 
made  for  one  of  the  optic  rounds  in  the  wall,  and  the 
first  sight  I  saw  struck  me  as  the  most  commonplace 
and  familiar.  It  was  a  representation  of  one  of  the 
foul  lanes  of  our  Western  cities.  There  were  the  gut- 
ter children,  the  reeling  drunkards  issuing  from  the 
gin  palaces,  the  cursing  drabs  behind  them,  the  tat- 
ters, the  filth,  the  dilapidated  buildings.  It  was  but 
an  unending  series  of  instantaneous  photographs  mov- 
ing with  great  speed  under  stereoscopic  glasses,  whilst 
the  sounds  accompanying  the  scene,  having  impressed 
themselves  similarly  on  long  strips  of  irelium,  were  in 
one  of  their  sound  machines  reproducing  themselves. 
It  was  indeed  the  commonest  and  most  repulsive  of 
sights  in  the  east  end  of  any  of  our  large  towns.  What 
astonished  me  was  that  it  should  have  been  taken  from 
European  life;  and  yet,  when  I  gazed  more  atten- 
tively at  it  and  put  the  sound-magnifier  to  my  ears,  I 
knew  that  it  was  not  European.  The  words  spoken 
were  in  a  language  I  did  not  know,  and  the  rags  of  the 
men  and  women  were  the  rags  of  a  national  costume  I 
did  not  recognise. 


Their  Heaven  and  Their  Hell     239 

I  shifted  my  rest  and  lens,  and  I  saw  a  rustic  village, 
such  as  I  had  known  in  my  boyhood,  with  the  toilers 
busy  at  their  work.  At  a  distance  it  was  a  happy 
scene;  for  the  men  and  women  were  absorbed  in  occu- 
pation and  seemed  to  have  forgotten  the  evils  of  man- 
kind. They  were  much  in  the  open  air,  which  was 
bright  with  the  colours  of  the  sunlight. ;  and  the  child- 
ren's voices  sounded  merry  at  play  or  humming  like 
bees  from  the  window  of  the  school  house.  It  was  a 
picture  such  as  city  poets  had  often  painted  as  ideal 
and  primitive  happiness,  yet  some  contrivance  seemed 
to  analyse  it  all  for  my  mind  and  reveal  to  me  that  it 
was  even  more  repulsive  than  that  of  the  foul  city  lane. 
Not  to  my  hearing  or  my  eyes  did  this  come;  but  to 
my  magnetic  sense,  ill-developed  though  it  was.  I 
felt  a  deadly  stupor  over  the  whole  pressing  out  the 
higher  life  of  every  rustic.  Not  the  diseases  which 
often  overtook  them  unprovided,  not  the  poverty 
leaving  no  outlook  for  their  old  age  except  reluctant 
and  hated  charity,  not  the  constant  slavey  of  toil,  or 
the  meagre  assuagement  of  its  woes  by  a  weekly  booze 
in  the  tavern,  weighed  upon  my  spirit  and  made  me 
sad  to  look  at  the  scene.  It  was  the  stagnant  spiritual 
level  on  which  they  and  their  children  to  the  thou- 
sandth generation  must  live,  without  power  of  per- 
ceiving the  nobleness  that  was  above  them  and  around 
them,  without  the  chance  of  ever  developing  the 
spiritual  energy  that  was  in  them,  without  one  ap- 
proach to  the  line  of  infinite  progress  going  on  through- 
out the  universe.  To  stand  still  or  recede  was  the  true 
inferno  of  the  Limanorans. 

Again  I  changed  my  optic  glass  and  a  greater  sad- 
ness came  to  me  through  my  magnetic  sense.  I  saw 
men  and  women  such  as  I  used  to  envy  for  their  re- 


240  Limanora 

spectable  life,  their  serene  comfort,  and  their  sure  grasp 
of  both  worlds  trooping  into  buildings  for  religions 
worship  They  bowed  and  sang,  they  genuflected 
and  prayed,  they  raised  their  eyes  to  the  ceiling,  they 
groaned  and  professed  to  pity  themselves  as  miserable 
sinners;  j'et  I  could  feel  they  had  an  inner  conscious- 
ness that  these  performances  were  superfluous  on  their 
part,  so  comfortably  worldly,  so  charitably  godly  were 
they.  As  they  rose  to  leave  the  temple,  they  seemed 
to  purr  and  pat  their  sleek  stomachs  in  supreme  self- 
content.  Yet  through  the  magnetic  magnifier  I  knew 
that  they  were  in  a  lower  circle  of  the  inferno  than  the 
rustic  slaves.  Their  past  stood  out  through  many 
generations  of  ancestors  exactly  the  same  as  their 
present  or  better.  Never  a  chance  had  they  of  pro- 
gressing; they  thought  they  had  reached  perfection  as 
far  as  earthy  conditions  would  allow.  They  prayed 
that  they  might  be  made  better;  but  that  was  onl}'  as 
they  prayed  that  their  sins  might  be  forgiven  when  they 
were  certain  that  they  had  committed  none,  or  as 
they  prayed  for  guidance  in  their  daily  duties  when  they 
knew  that  no  one  could  manage  them  better  than 
they.  Stagnancy  was  written  on  every  feature  of  their 
faces  and  of  their  lives,  fatty  degeneration  of  every 
faculty  and  organ  necessary  to  development.  Their 
ethics,  their  religion,  their  business,  their  habits  of  life 
had  all  reached  a  stage  that  made  criticism  superfluous 
and  that  knew  no  higher  outlook. 

The  next  scene  that  came  through  the  lens  was  one 
of  the  most  envied  of  Christendom.  Men  and  women 
of  the  highest  birth  and  best  breeding  were  moving  to 
and  fro  in  brilliantly  lit  and  decorated  rooms,  in  the 
largest  of  which  the  dance  was  proceeding.  In  another 
room  a  luxurious   supper  was   laid,   varied    and   fine 


Their  Heaven  and  Their  Hell     241 

enough  to  tempt  the  eye  and  palate  of  the  most  fastidi- 
ous gourmand.  Voluptuous  music  and  scents  filled 
the  air;  witty  conversation  was  stirring  even  the  most 
languid  faces  to  smiles.  What  could  be  more  perfect 
on  earth  than  the  enjoyment  of  such  a  scene  ?  Vet  this 
was  a  deeper  slough  of  hell  than  any  I  had  yet  viewed. 
The  whole  of  life  was  concentrated  in  the  senses,  the 
least  progressive  of  all  the  organs  of  human  nature,  the 
organs  soonest  sated  with  what  they  desire.  And  what 
a  horror  of  life  was  revealed  beneath  all  this  brilliancy! 
A  crescendo  of  such  pleasures  was  needed  to  drive  off 
ennui;  and  such  a  crescendo  was  not  to  be  found. 
The  young  still  lived  in  hopeful  mirage.  The  middle- 
aged  were  sick  of  it  all.  The  old  sneered  cynically 
over  everything  or  babbled  the  senility  of  second  child- 
hood. The  vulgar  consequences  of  vice  or  the  en- 
tanglements of  crime,  the  surfeit  of  pleasure  or  the 
tedium  of  life  kept  most  of  them  within  one  step  of 
suicide.  Their  course  was  ever  downwards.  I  pitied 
these  magnificent  voluptuaries,  in  all  their  ephemeral 
pursuits  and  aims.  The  brilliancy  was  only  an  attempt 
to  hide  the  ghastly  grinning  of  death  and  corruption  in 
the  reality  underneath. 

Another  change  of  the  point  of  view,  and  the  world 
of  fame  revealed  itself  in  its  gilded  horrors.  I  watched 
the  struggling  poet  trampled  beneath  the  foot  of  luxury 
and  contempt,  happy  if  only  he  died  early  in  the  hate- 
ful wrestle  for  glory.  I  saw  the  drowning  agonies  of 
the  novices  in  the  sea  of  literature,  appealing  in  vain 
for  help  to  the  wealthy  as  they  passed  in  barges  lulled 
by  the  rich  music  of  flattery;  here  and  there  a  frantic 
swimmer  clutched  at  help,  and  out  again  he  was  thrust 
into  the  depths  by  the  minions  of  literary  fame.     How 

little  the  rejected  knew  of  the  reality  that  thev  strove 
16 


242  Limanora 

after !  I  looked  into  the  hearts  of  the  famous  and  saw 
corrupt  masses  of  jealousy  and  hate,  or  hollow  shells 
echoing  the  miser}'  of  life.  The  most  appalling  sight 
was,  not  the  failures  in  art  and  learning,  science  and 
commerce,  but  the  successes.  Behind  a  mask  of  smil- 
ing prosperity  and  conventional  enjoyment  of  the  world 
there  was  but  a  handful  of  dust  that  bore  the  weary  load 
of  existence  in  agony. 

Generation  after  generation  came  and  passed  through 
this  torturing  fire,  knowing  not  why  they  bore  the 
pangs  for  threescore  years  and  ten,  or  whither  they 
were  borne.  They  seemed  to  improve,  but  only  sank 
deeper  into  the  original  barbarism.  Here  and  there 
they  picked  out  a  name  of  one  long  dead  and  wor- 
shipped it;  but  the  shrine  was  empty;  it  was  only  a 
name,  and  not  the  personality  for  which  it  had  once 
stood.  Behind  I  could  hear  the  spirit  wailing  and 
cursing  its  fate  and  the  falsehood  and  hypocrisy  of  his 
adorers.  He  knew  the  hollowness  and  pretence  of  the 
whole  performance;  he  knew  that  the  name  had  be- 
come a  weapon  for  offending  and  maiming  those  who 
in  their  innocence  were  struggling  for  fame,  as  he  had 
done,  in  vain. 

The  deepest  circle  of  hell  was  still  to  meet  my 
eyes.  I  thought,  as  I  was  guided  to  it,  that  it  must 
be  that  of  murderers  and  furious  criminals.  My 
amazement  grew,  as  I  looked  into  the  lens  and  saw 
that  the  actors,  or  I  should  more  truly  say  the  sufferers, 
were  the  great  of  the  earth,  the  monarchs  and  states- 
men and  warriors,  who  drew  all  men's  eyes  to  them  as 
the  masters  of  life.  A  movement  on  the  part  of  my 
guide  touched  some  key,  and  a  strange  gleam  of  un- 
earthly light  threw  out  into  relief  the  hidden  mechan- 
ism of  their  existence.     Round  everyone  was  a  network 


Their  Heaven  and  Their  Hell     243 

of  threads  like  a  spider's  web,  and  the  controlling  ends 
of  the  threads  led  up  obscurely  into  the  hands  of  a 
crowd  of  miscreants,  who  lay  out  of  sight  of  the  ap- 
plauding mobs;  when  a  limb  or  a  lip  or  an  eye  seemed 
to  move  of  its  own  accord  to  the  music  of  huzzas,  it 
was  jerked  by  a  thread  in  the  control  of  some  scowling 
villain  who  worked  the  movement  for  his  own  murder- 
ous purpose.  These  gorgeous  figures  were  but  puppets 
playing  a  marionette-play  upon  the  stage  of  life.  One 
or  two  of  the  strongest  seemed  instinct  with  the  breath 
of  originality,  but  a  still  stronger  light  revealed  ada- 
mantine chains  woven  around  them,  and  attached  to 
these  one  master-chain  which  disappeared  into  infinity; 
they  were  in  the  spider-web  of  fate.  Still  more  awful 
was  the  sight  of  their  own  hearts;  each  had  a  crimson- 
taloned  vulture  gnawing  the  vitals,  and  each  saw  every 
detail  of  the  agonising  sight;  nor  could  he  move  to  the 
right  or  left  except  to  cluch  at  the  bared  heart  of  his 
rival  and  torture  him.  Who  could  imagine  hell  more 
appalling  than  this?  Yet  up  the  giddy  approach  to 
the  seats  of  the  mighty  climbed  eager  competitors  for 
any  place  in  this  torture-chamber  death  or  defeat  might 
empty. 

Then  behind  all  stretched  the  curtain  of  infinity; 
and  as  it  rose  the  ranks  of  worlds  and  universes  ap- 
peared, dwarfing  into  pettiness  the  sights  that  had 
racked  my  eyes.  Iyife  and  the  ideals  of  life  rose 
higher  and  higher  up  through  the  regimented  worlds, 
and  the  little  inferno  I  had  watched  became  a  micro- 
scopic speck  on  the  round  of  existence.  The  shadow 
of  their  heaven  fell  over  their  heads.  The  agony  I  had 
seen  became  but  an  atom  in  infinity. 


CHAPTER   XVII 


MY   EDUCATION   CONTINUED 


THE  gaze  into  the  probabilities  of  the  future  and 
into  the  realities  of  the  past  ejected  from  my  sys- 
tem whatever  of  dangerous  admiration  I  might  have 
felt  for  the  career  of  such  a  military  adventurer  as 
Choktroo.  In  spite  of  my  self-control  and  rapidly  de- 
veloping reasoning  faculty,  there  lurked  in  me  the  same 
longing  for  power  that  had  been  so  evident  in  my 
cabin-boy.  Though  he  had  fallen  so  wretchedly  there 
was  a  romance  about  his  career  which  appealed  to  some- 
thing deep-seated  in  my  spirit.  I  knew  what  a  hypo- 
crite and  scoundrel  he  had  become  in  order  to  make  his 
success,  yet  the  success  seemed  to  condone  his  offences 
against  the  progress  of  humanity.  The  lust  of  rule 
that  lies  in  the  hearts  of  all  men  had  not  }'et  been  eradi- 
cated from  mine.  I  had  advanced  so  far  as  to  be 
ashamed  of  it;  and  I  tried  to  reason  it  down  or  to  con- 
ceal even  from  myself  the  fact  of  its  existence;  but 
my  guardians  knew  that  it  was  there,  and  they  took 
the  necessary  precautions  against  its  growth.  Thus 
did  I  pass  with  the  whole  people  through  the  national 
purification  ending  with  a  glimpse  of  their  heaven  and 
their  hell. 

And  now  I  was  ready  to  re-enter  on  my  process  of 
244 


My  Education  Continued         245 

education.  The  more  spiritual  portions  of  my  nature 
had  been  remoulded  or  confirmed  to  follow  in  the  true 
path  of  Iyimanoran  development.  The  last  purificatory 
process  had  revealed  in  me  the  virtuous  or  progressive 
balance  that  ensured  success  in  the  island.  The  minds 
of  my  guardians  were  now  at  rest  with  regard  to  my 
spiritual  future,  and  I  was  on  the  fair  way  to  become 
one  of  the  community. 

Still  my  physical  constitution  lagged  far  behind  the 
race.  Nor  had  I  any  hope  of  ever  making  up  this 
lost  time,  so  much  had  the  education  of  generations 
and  the  accumulations  of  heredity  done  for  them.  My 
senses  were  but  feebly  developed  compared  with  those 
of  the  Limanorans;  and  though  the)-  gave  sensuous 
faculties  a  far  lower  place  than  the  most  advanced 
thinkers  I  had  ever  known  of  in  Europe,  they  by  no 
means  neglected  them,  but  considered  them  important 
instruments  of  progress  in  the  material  conditions  of 
their  life. 

My  proparents  thought  it  necessary  that  I  should  be 
brought  in  the  development  of  my  sensuous  perceptions 
nearer  to  their  own  level,  now  that  my  love  of  reason 
was  so  strong  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  being 
overwhelmed  by  sensuous  energy.  They  began  with 
the  most  intellectual  of  the  senses,  the  eyesight,  and  by 
the  help  of  magnetism,  hypnotic  suggestion,  and  con- 
stant practice  under  their  tuition,  they  soon  brought 
me  to  see  farther  afield  and  more  keenly  into  the  struc- 
ture of  things  around  me  than  I  had  in  Europe  thought 
it  possible  for  the  human  eye  to  accomplish.  I  could 
perceive  with  the  naked  eye  stars  that  I  had  been 
able  to  see  before  only  through  the  telescope.  I  began 
to  note  the  changes  of  tissue  underneath  the  skull  of 
my  neighbours  when  any   great   thought  or  emotion 


246  Limanora 

stirred  in  them,  and  could  use  their  wonderful  instru- 
ments of  far  and  near  research  with  appreciation. 
Through  these  instruments  faint  stars  appeared  moons, 
and  the  nearer  planets  revealed  many  of  the  secrets  of 
their  surface;  whilst  the  elements  resolved  themselves 
into  even  simpler  constituents.  What  still  lay  beyond 
I  could  not  imagine,  yet  there  were  manifestly  worlds, 
intensive  and  extensive,  still  to  be  explored  be3Tond  the 
limits  of  these  aids  to  sight. 

In  the  life  of  an  individual  I  could  not  expect  to  ap- 
proach the  development  of  optic  faculty  attained  by 
this  people.  This  impressed  itself  more  deepty  upon 
me  when  my  guardians  tried  to  evolve  in  me  the  mag- 
netic power  of  eye  which  every  Limanoran  had  by 
nature.  When  any  one  of  them  turned  his  full  glance 
upon  me,  it  was  like  encountering  the  direct  beams  of 
the  sun;  I  had  to  drop  my  eyelids  in  self-defence.  It 
was  this  that  gave  them  such  hypnotic  power  over 
Choktroo  and  his  followers.  Their  eye  was  an  active 
exponent  of  the  soul  within  as  well  as  a  passive  re- 
cipient of  messages  from  the  world  without,  and  could 
concentrate  into  its  glance  the  energy  of  their  powerful 
wills.  Any  one  of  these  L,imanorans  amongst  the 
feebler-eyed  millions  of  the  rest  of  the  world  would 
have  proved  himself  a  master-spirit.  He  would,  with 
his  unhesitating  will  and  the  magnetism  of  his  eye, 
have  kept  masses  of  men  in  check  and  moulded  them 
into  a  unity,  and  the  great  commanders  of  history 
would  have  blenched  before  his  gaze. 

From  the  first  I  had  felt  uneasy  under  the  full  glance 
of  my  island  friends,  in  spite  of  its  kindliness  and 
benevolence.  Before  I  left  England,  I  had  been 
supposed  to  have  the  mesmeric  faculty  to  an  excep- 
tional degree.     Now  I  found  it  pale  before  those  mar- 


My  Education  Continued         247 

vellous  Linianoran  eyes,  and  all  the  training  and 
physical  aid  my  proparents  could  give  me  in  this  direc- 
tion, though  they  added  greatly  to  my  energy  of  will 
and  eye,  only  brought  out  my  hopeless  inferiority.  I 
was  able  at  last  to  bear  their  glances  with  ease,  and 
even  to  raise  my  eyes  to  theirs  for  a  few  seconds;  but 
I  ceased  to  hope  for  the  attainment  of  their  ocular  com- 
mand or  their  magnetic  power. 

Even  their  passive  electric  sense  was  far  beyond  my 
possibility  in  many  of  its  ramifications.  For  years  I 
had  wondered  why  their  couriers  into  far  regions  of  the 
sk}'  could  without  any  chart  or  landmarks  find  their  way 
back  to  their  island  home  with  such  ease.  It  could  not 
be  by  means  of  vision ;  for  they  often  went  flying  above 
the  clouds  to  the  antipodes;  nor  could  it  be  by  smell; 
for  that  sense  was  not  nearly  so  much  developed  as  the 
others.  In  some  of  my  now  more  distant  flights  with 
Thyriel  I  discovered  that  they  homed  by  the  electric 
sense.  It  had  become  keen  in  the  measurements  of 
amounts  of  electricity;  and  every  locality  had  its  own 
electric  possibilities,  not  to  speak  of  a  certain  peculiar 
quality  in  its  electricity  which  differentiated  it  from 
all  others.  One  of  the  most  important  branches  of 
their  education  was  the  magnetography  of  the  earth 
and  sky.  Although  I  never  got  beyond  a  vague  per- 
ception of  differences  in  the  degrees  of  electricity,  it  was 
of  some  use  to  me  in  my  flights  to  have  learned  the 
elements  of  this  great  descriptive  science.  I  could 
tell  with  fair  accuracy  how  high  I  was  above  the  earth 
and  whether  I  was  drifting  away  from  Limanora  or 
towards  it;  for  the  amount  of  electricity  in  any  region 
varied  within  certain  definite  limits  and  the  conditions 
governing  it  were  constant  for  long  periods  of  time; 
these  were,  roughly,  the  metals  beneath  the  surface  of 


248  Limanora 

the  earth,  the  differences  in  temperature  of  the  strata 
of  air  above,  the  evaporation  and  chemical  changes  on 
the  earth  below,  and  the  periodicity  of  the  influence  of 
the  sun  and  the  stars.  Their  electric  charts  of  the  sky 
and  air  were  ever  in  process  of  correction,  but  so  slightly 
and  gradually  in  each  region  that  it  was  only  after 
long  periods  that  the  Limanoran  couriers  had  to  revise 
their  magnetographic  knowledge;  indeed  it  was  their 
reports  after  long  flights  which  generally  led  to  the 
minute  corrections  of  their  charts.  It  was  the  work  of 
a  few  minutes  only  to  learn  the  new  modifications,  for 
their  charts  were  exact  miniature  models  of  that  which 
they  were  intended  to  represent;  the  learner  had  only 
to  touch  a  spring  and  by  the  inner  mechanism  of  the 
globe  out  would  ray  to  each  point  of  it  the  electricities 
that  in  degree  and  quality  belonged  to  the  region  indi- 
cated; the  member  of  the  electric  family  who  guided 
him  would  explain  the  changes  that  had  occurred  since 
he  last  consulted  the  instrument,  and  his  own  electric 
sense  would  tell  him  the  rest. 

Nor  was  this  magnetographic  training  useful  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  pilotage  through  the  heavenly 
vault.  It  enabled  any  courier  to  seek  the  region 
where  he  would  most  easily  recharge  the  little  en- 
gines which  he  bore  with  him  under  his  arms  to 
aid  in  his  wing  journey.  Although  he  could  prevent 
the  complete  exhaustion  of  these  power  auxiliaries 
by  supplying  them  with  some  of  the  magnetism  in 
his  own  body,  it  was  only  in  emergencies  that  he  did 
this;  for  his  own  system  needed  electric  recuperation 
as  well.  Whenever  this  was  required,  he  made  for 
some  region  of  the  air  that  he  knew  to  be  highly  elec- 
tric; and  there  he  floated,  whilst  with  his  receptive 
sense  he  drew  in  new  stores  for  his  own  system  and 


My  Education  Continued         249 

for  his  little  armpit  engines.  Then  he  went  on  his 
way  rejoicing,  exhilarated  by  his  new  energy.  One  of 
the  purposes  of  their  frequent  flight  into  atmospheric 
spheres  other  than  their  own  was  to  drink  in  new  mag- 
netism from  one  of  the  great  sky  fountains. 

When  a  Limauoran  returned  from  an  aerial  flight 
there  was  renewed  life  in  him.  His  e3res  glowed  with 
a  heightened  radiancy;  I  could  see  a  soft  light  play 
about  them  in  the  dark,  and  this,  if  needed,  he  could 
make  even  piercing  in  its  brilliancy.  He  required  no 
light  to  guide  him  in  the  deepest  night.  His  electric 
sense  gathered  in  from  the  atmosphere  the  scattered 
radiance  that  was  hidden  from  my  sight;  and  from  his 
eyes  he  could  emit  this  electricity  in  the  form  of  light. 
For  me,  who,  under  all  their  training,  was  never  able 
to  develop  such  power  over  the  unseen  forces  of  the  air, 
the  eyes  of  Thyriel  were  a  guide  in  our  flight  through 
the  night  sky;  and  by  day  so  gentle  a  brilliance 
played  around  them  it  was  little  wonder  they  fascinated 
and  drew  me  ever  to  them.  After  experiencing  their 
power,  I  was  not  surprised  at  the  hypnotic  influence 
Limanoran  eyes  had  had  over  the  leaders  of  the  hostile 
expedition. 

It  did  not  astonish  me  to  find  that  by  means  of  their 
electric  energy  they  could  move  vast  masses  which  no 
mere  muscular  force  could  have  touched.  I  had  a  con- 
stitution that  seemed  to  be  physically  far  stronger  than 
Thyriel's;  yet,  if  she  had  time  to  reinforce  her  store  of 
magnetism,  she  could  accomplish  feats  of  strength  I 
could  not  approach.  In  her  fragile  system  there  seemed 
to  reside  a  giant's  energy;  but  this  was  only  at  times, 
and  especially  after  she  had  made  some  long  journey 
into  the  regions  of  the  air.  The  tissues  and  fibres  of 
her  body  seemed  to  grow  tenfold  stronger  when  the 


250  Limanora 

new  electric  energy  tingled  along  her  nerves.  In  only 
the  faintest  way  was  I  ever  able  to  develop  my  electric- 
receptive  sense  so  far  as  to  realise  what  a  new  store 
meant  to  their  physical  powers. 

Yet  my  guardians  set  themselves  to  bring  out  my 
latent  electric  sense  or  firla.  After  much  practice  and 
the  application  of  many  stimuli  I  began  to  feel  im- 
pulses more  keenly  even  when  they  came  from  a  dis- 
tance: the  back  of  my  neck  grew  more  and  more 
sensitive,  so  that  I  would  wheel  round  instinctively 
when  anyone  looked  at  me  from  behind.  There  was 
almost  hope  that  I  should,  after  many  years'  practice, 
come  to  distinguish  the  different  kinds  of  emotion  with 
which  anyone,  though  unseen,  might  look  at  me;  and 
I  could  produce  by  a  concentration  of  will-force  in  the 
eyes  a  certain  luminosity,  noticeable  when  I  stood  in 
deep  darkness. 

My  power  of  sight  was  greatly  strengthened  by  this 
new  electric  faculty  that  the  eyes  acquired.  I  began 
to  raise  my  eyelids  before  the  penetrative  glance  of  a 
Ljmanoran,  or  even  the  full  majesty  of  the  sun;  but 
never  could  I  hope  to  reach  their  analytic  power  of 
vision.  Their  senses  were  distinguished  from  those  of 
the  rest  of  mankind  by  intellectuality,  and  were,  I 
thought,  not  merely  the  observers  and  reporters  of  the 
mind,  but  its  outlying  parts  or  functions.  The  eye 
especially  seemed  to  do  what  through  its  means  reason 
and  experiment  might  have  done.  At  a  glance  a 
Limanoran  would  tell  to  an  inch  the  distance  of  any 
object,  and  was  not  far  wrong  in  his  estimate  of  the 
space  between  the  earth  and  any  star  when  its  rays 
reached  his  eye.  He  could  distinguish  one  ray  from 
another  by  its  colour  or  colour-constituents  and  by 
its  magnetic  affinities.     What  he  had  learned  in  the 


My  Education  Continued 


2^1 


use  of  the  inamar  or  spectroscope  in  the  lava  wells  and 
in  the  fusion  of  metals  in  Rimla  had  come  to  be  a  visual 
instinct.  With  scarcely  a  minute's  hesitation  he  would 
tell  the  predominant  elements  in  any  one  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  Doubtless  the  firla  had  something 
to  do  with  this  analytic  power.  One  of  their  imagina- 
tive pioneering  books  held  out  the  by  no  means  remote 
possibility  of  catching  symptoms  of  the  life  which,  they 
knew  well,  filled  the  dim  worlds  above. 

Their  auditor}-  powers  had  been  far  less  developed 
than  their  visual,  and  gave  but  faint  hope  of  transcend- 
ing interstellar  space,  and  my  training  soon  brought 
me  within  easy  distance  of  their  hearing  capacity. 
The  range  of  this  faculty  both  at  its  upper  and  its 
lower  limit  had  been  considerably  extended.  Sounds 
dangerous  on  account  of  their  loudness  to  the  inner 
mechanism  of  ordinary  ears  were  by  means  partty  of 
strengthening  the  protective  cartilages  and  partly  of  a 
trevamolan  or  graduated  modifier  of  sound,  which  they 
constantly  wore,  made  harmless  and  even  gentle  and 
enjoyable.  Those  that  were  too  faint  to  reach  any 
human  ear  became  audible  to  me  after  some  training 
in  the  use  of  their  vamolans  or  makro-mikrakousts.  So 
greatly  had  these  been  improved  along  with  the  power 
of  hearing  that  they  could  discriminate  the  different 
noises  of  microscopic  life.  These  vamolans  in  their 
application  of  electricity  to  hearing  could  make  the 
buzzing  of  an  insect  sound  like  the  roar  of  thunder. 
By  modifications  of  them  any  of  the  sounds  heard 
through  them  could  be  recorded  for  ever. 

Thus  had  been  formed  a  library  and  museum  of  the 
phonology  of  animal  life.  They  had  been  able  to  study 
the  records  of  sounds  emitted  by  the  various  species  of 
animals  and  had  come  to  know  the  meaning  of  each 


252  Limanora 

sound  before  they  had  driven  all  but  microscopic  life 
from  the  island;  thus  they  had  learned  by  means  ot 
the  recording  vamolans  the  language  of  animals.  The 
birds  of  the  air  I  have  seen  follow  the  cries  of  Thyriel, 
gathering  around  her  in  clouds,  as  she  flew,  until  by 
a  sudden  change  of  tone  she  would  scatter  the  flutter- 
ing masses  to  the  four  winds.  Even  the  fish  of  the  sea 
would  rise  and  leap  above  the  waves  to  her  notes; 
ferocious,  devouring  monsters  would  leave  their  prey 
and  follow  gently  in  her  train.  Most  of  this  power 
over  the  undeveloped  creation  was  due  to  the  record 
and  study  of  their  cries;  but  not  all.  The  magnetism 
of  her  personality  had  a  strange  effect  upon  the  wildest 
birds  of  prey:  it  seemed  to  bear  with  it  tacitly  the  les- 
son of  Iyimanoran  civilisation  that  no  life  was  to  be  de- 
stroyed by  those  who  meant  to  make  the  best  of  life; 
there  was  a  gentle,  merciful  spirit  in  the  glow  of  the 
eyes.  I  have  seen  her  take  a  wounded  bird  to  her 
bosom  as  she  flew,  and,  putting  new  life  into  it  by  the 
stroke  of  her  fingers,  set  it  free,  strong  and  happy. 

There  was  a  life-giving  power  in  the  tips  of  L,ima- 
noran  fingers  that  puzzled  me  at  first.  Why  the  mere 
touch  should  so  soothe  the  lower  creation  that  the  agony 
of  their  wounds  would  soon  vanish  and  their  cries  cease 
bewildered  me  for  a  time.  My  own  pains  rapidly  dis- 
appeared under  the  touch  of  my  proparents.  I  after- 
wards knew  that  part  of  the  active  magnetism  of  their 
system  came  through  their  fingers  and  they  helped  me 
to  develop  this  channel  of  influence  in  myself.  I  could 
at  last  by  passing  my  fingers  over  Thyriel's  hair  or  face 
relieve  any  tension  of  her  nerves  which  might  have 
produced  pain;  nay,  I  could  hear  her  hair  crackle 
under  my  touch  when  I  had  charged  my  system  with 
much  electricity.     Once  or  twice  I  was  able  to  draw  a 


My  Education  Continued         253 

wounded  bird  to  me,  and  change  by  my  stroke  on  the 
feathers  its  cries  of  pain  into  low  notes  of  content; 
but  I  could  never  draw  the  winged  creation  to  me  in 
clouds  as  Thyriel  did. 

It  was  all  the  more  surprising  to  me  that  they  fenced 
off  animal  life  from  their  island.  What  might  they 
not  have  done  with  such  powers  over  the  lower  crea- 
tion? When  I  put  my  question  into  words,  the  answer 
was  unhesitating  and  unanswerable.  All  failures  in 
development  had  to  be  thrust  from  the  path  of  pro- 
gress; they  could  do  nothing  but  clog  it.  If  the 
L,imanorans  had  little  hesitation  in  the  case  of  their 
own  flesh  and  blood,  they  had  still  less  when  they  had 
to  deal  with  animals.  It  was  quite  true  that  many  of 
the  more  highly  developed  of  the  servants  of  man  had 
nobler  natures  than  most  of  their  masters,  deeper 
loyalty,  greater  sincerity,  truer  and  more  lasting  cour- 
age; much  might  and  did  come  from  companionship 
with  their  primitive  and  guilt-proof  natures;  but  the 
fact  that  when  associated  with  man  they  were  destined 
to  serve,  made  such  good  impracticable  and  rather 
brought  out  the  mean  and  brutal  tyranny  of  man  than 
helped  to  implant  in  his  nature  their  own  virtues. 
Even  with  such  noble  qualities  as  they  had  it  was  im- 
possible for  them  to  overleap  the  many  ages  their  sys- 
tems had  lagged  behind  in  other  respects,  the  open 
offensiveness  of  their  grosser  animal  appetites  and 
needs,  their  lack  of  that  great  instrument  and  teacher 
of  the  brain,  a  full}7  developed  hand,  and  the  inability 
to  foresee  beyond  a  few  hours,  days,  or  months.  Nor 
could  any  human  process  prolong  their  period  of  life 
and  postpone  their  day  of  dissolution.  It  was  not  a 
good  thing  for  these  pioneers  of  the  human  race  to  see 
the  approach  of  death  and  its  agonies  in  a  being  that 


254  Limanora 

could  not  assuage  or  postpone  it.  Still  less  beneficial 
was  it  to  touch  the  carcases  and  reduce  them  to  harm- 
less atoms.  The  presence  of  animals  meant  the  daily 
obtrusion  of  offensive  sights  that  would  either  shock 
or  degrade  their  natures.  All  that  animals  could  do 
for  them  was  already  done  by  their  science  or  their 
machinery.  Nothing  that  had  fallen  so  far  behind  in 
the  race  of  life  was  worth  the  trouble  of  missionary  ism; 
for  the  energy  that  was  in  it  had  a  better  chance  of 
rising  swiftly  in  the  scale  of  existence  by  dissolution 
and  entrance  into  some  other  form. 

None  the  less  had  they  studied  the  language  of  ani- 
mals when  they  had  had  the  opportunity.  It  belonged 
to  the  orchestration  of  the  world,  and  all  the  sounds 
of  nature  were  of  interest  to  them.  They  were  in  the 
habit  of  visualising  what  they  heard  by  a  refined  and 
complicated  instrument  which  they  called  a  thinamar, 
arid  had  long  been  able  to  translate  into  its  appropriate 
form  and  colour  every  sound,  inarticulate  as  well  as 
articulate.  Through  long  use  of  this  instrument  the 
tones  of  nature  bore  with  them  something  that  ap- 
pealed to  their  eye.  I  never  grew  expert  enough  in 
its  use  to  make  the  visualisation  of  sound  an  instinct; 
still  less  could  I  reverse  the  process.  A  modification 
of  their  thinamar  had  enabled  them  to  translate  sights 
into  the  symbols  of  sound,  and  by  skill  in  using  it  they 
had  come  to  attach  certain  notes  to  certain  sights. 
Thus  a  noble  landscape  would  appeal  to  their  imagina- 
tion not  only  through  the  eye,  but  in  the  form  of  music, 
and  they  spoke  of  hearing  the  beauty  of  a  star  or  a 
flower.  A  section  of  this  instrument  did  for  compli- 
cated sounds  what  the  spectroscope,  or  inamar  as  they 
called  it,  did  for  light.  Every  substance,  every  indi- 
vidual living  thing,  had  its  natural  and  peculiar  note; 


My  Education  Continued         255 

and  the  linamar  analysed  what  seemed  to  me  the  sim- 
plest sound  into  its  constituent  primary  notes,  each  of 
which  revealed  its  source.  Aided  by  their  mikrakousts 
and  inakrakousts,  it  enabled  the  Umanorans  to  analyse 
the  chemical  elements  of  any  object,  whether  at  a  great 
distance  from  them  or  too  minute  to  appeal  to  their 
senses. 

Their  makrakousts  were  instruments  which  by  means 
of  electric  currents  and  magnetism  could  make  a  beam 
of  light  transmit  any  sound  to  its  source,  or  make  the 
ear  gather  in  the  same  way  whatsoever  sounds  were 
filling  the  air  at  any  point  on  its  course.     I  knew  when 
I  saw  a  steady  flash  in  any  direction  that  the  sound  of 
some  point  was  getting  tapped  by  one  of  these  instru- 
ments.    Each  had  an  apparatus  for  laying  and  keeping 
fixed  its  luminous  telegraph-wire  along  which  it  re- 
ceived and  transmitted.     An  application  of  this  in  the 
gossip-teiegraph  enabled  them  to  listen  to  the  comedy 
of  life  as  it  went  on  in  any  one  of  the  adjacent  islands 
of  the  archipelago.     Their  mikrakousts  used  the  same 
means  for  gathering  the  faint  sounds  which  echoed  from 
the  clouds  or  through  the  upper  regions  of  the  atmos- 
phere and  turning  them  into  loud  notes,  which  might  be 
recorded,  analysed,  and  interpreted.     Their  magnifying 
power  was  quite  equal  to  that  of  the  clirolan.     Faint 
buzzings  of  insects  at  vast  distances  could  be  collected 
and  made  as  loud  as  thunder.     It  was  even  applied  to 
cosmic  sounds  that  impinged  on  the  atmospheric  en- 
velope of  the  earth.     Mikrakoustic  balloons  rose  into 
the  upper  air,  and  after  gathering  whatever  faint  sounds 
wandered  thither  from  outside  the  world,  were  drawn 
back  again  to  divulge  their  secrets;  eavesdroppers  of 
the  cosmos  they  were,  and  perchance  in  some  future 
age   they  would   enable   the   Umanorau  to  listen  to 


256  Limanora 

voices  from  other  worlds  or  even  to  communicate  with 
the  dwellers  there.  A  more  immediate  and  practical 
advantage  of  these  instruments  was  found  in  medicine. 
They  told  in  clear  accents  the  unexpected  or  dangerous 
changes  in  the  tissues  or  organs  of  any  man's  system. 
They  were  used  in  the  weekly  medical  inspection^ 
which  every  member  of  the  commonwealth  underwent. 
When  the  keen  eye,  aided  by  the  camera-microscope, 
could  detect  nothing  abnormal  in  the  body,  the  mikra- 
koust  would  tell  the  examiner's  ear  of  some  obstruc- 
tion or  deleterious  change;  he  knew  the  normal  sounds 
of  healthy  action  in  every  part  when  they  were  mag- 
nified thousands  of  times  by  this  instrument,  and  every 
departure  from  them  readily  caught  the  ear.  All  the 
citizens  were  trained  to  use  it  as  an  aid  in  diagnosis,  so 
that  they  might  be  able  to  locate  in  the  system  any 
beginning  of  disease.  It  was  part  of  the  training  of 
my  ear  to  use  the  mikrakoust  and  to  interpret  its  phy- 
siological revelations. 

But  these  instruments  were  getting  antiquated  by 
the  rapid  development  of  the  electric  sense  that  could, 
by  the  aid  of  their  various  electro-magnifiers  and  ana- 
lysers, gather  in  cosmic  news  from  distances  which  the 
sense  of  hearing  and  its  aids  would  count  infinite. 
Magnetic  kites  and  balloons  rose  to  the  uttermost 
fringe  of  our  atmosphere,  whither  common  terrestrial 
influences  could  reach  only  in  such  faint  waves  as  to 
be  neutralised;  there  they  gathered  the  electric  im- 
pressions and  impulses  coming  from  other  planets  and 
even  other  systems.  On  them  were  recorded  the  varjr- 
ing  strengths  of  the  waves  and  their  direction.  From 
these  records  the  astronomical  families  could  tell  what 
was  happening  of  a  cosmic  character  in  universes  far 
out  of  the  reach  of  even  their  lavidrolans  or  camera- 


My  Education  Continued         257 

telescopes, — perturbations  in  the  atmospheres  of  great 
unseen  suns,  collisions  between  worlds  that  circled 
round  them,  births  of  new  universes  from  these  lost 
systems,  periodic  disturbances  of  the  routine  revolutions 
through  the  approach  of  some  meteoric  wanderer,  the 
settlement  of  life  on  worlds  grown  ripe  for  it,  and  the 
death  of  outworn  stars.  For  many  generations  had 
they  kept  and  classified  these  reports  of  cosmic  history 
and  were  beginning  to  recognise  a  wide  periodicity  in 
many  of  them  and  to  draw  conclusions  as  to  the  path 
of  our  universe  through  infinite  space.  It  seemed  to 
them  that  there  was  some  point  far  distant  in  the  cos- 
mos, round  which  our  sun  and  its  satellites  with  in- 
numerable other  systems  of  stars  revolved,  and  that 
this  point,  with  its  satellites,  had  its  own  independent 
movement.  Age  by  age,  with  the  aid  of  their  idrolans 
or  electric  telescopes,  and  other  electric  instruments, 
the}'  felt  that  they  were  getting  nearer  and  nearer  to 
the  centre  of  this  interwoven  epicycloidal  movement 
and  were  almost  convinced  that  it  did  not  proceed  in- 
finitely, but  that  there  was  some  ultimate  centre  which 
had  no  movement  round  another.  Their  instincts  told 
them  that  this  was  the  divine  consciousness  towards 
which  all  things  rose  in  the  scale  of  being.  They 
never  remitted  their  ardour  and  diligence  in  the  de- 
velopment of  their  electric  sense  and  of  the  instruments 
that  aided  it  to  become  a  receiver  of  cosmic  news  and 
a  recorder  of  cosmic  history,  for  they  were  confident 
that  this  was  one  of  the  tracks  that  led  up  through  the 
intricacy  of  the  cosmos  to  God. 

One  of  my  greatest  regrets  was  that  my  electric  sense 
could  not  follow  the  footsteps  of  these  pioneers  in  the 
infinite;  it  had  but  a  dim  consciousness  of  the  reports 
of  their  instruments,  and  train  it  as  eagerly  and  dili- 


258  Limanora 

gently  as  I  would,  it  lagged  behind  my  power  of  vision 
and  even  my  sense  of  hearing.  On  this  account  I  pre- 
ferred to  learn  the  results  of  their  researches  through 
these  two  senses,  for  the  electric  reports  were  carefully 
translated  into  appeals  to  the  eye  and  the  ear.  I  could 
see  their  wonderful  discoveries  in  the  unknown,  as  they 
worked  them  into  picture  and  mechanism,  and  I  could 
listen  from  day  to  day  to  the  orchestration  of  their 
newly  discovered  spaces  and  movements.  What  seemed 
at  the  moment  an  intolerable  discord  chimed  in  with 
the  notes  which  preceded  or  followed  and  formed  mar- 
vellous harmony.  Not  the  least  part  of  my  education 
lay  in  this  cosmic  stimulus  to  my  imagination.  Out  of 
my  terrestrial  conditions  and  limits  I  daily  rose  into 
spheres  which  seemed  to  me  more  and  more  divine. 
Sight  and  hearing  became  noble  channels  of  the  in- 
fluences of  infinity,  instead  of  gross  senses.  I  strug- 
gled to  bring  my  firla  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  their 
labours,  but  ever  fell  back  hopeless. 

This  was  especially  the  case  when  I  was  brought  to 
examine  and  test  their  monalan  or  electrical  distance- 
analyst,  for  a  fully  developed  electric  sense  was  needed 
to  appreciate  its  refined  analysis  of  impulses  from  far 
distances.  It  was  an  ingenious  application  of  an  alloy 
called  by  them  labramor,  or  electricity  sponge,  and  had 
the  power  of  splitting  up  any  electric  wave  or  impulse 
into  its  constituent  movements.  Each  of  these  had  its 
own  clear  and  distinct  effect  upon  the  firla  and  varied 
with  the  substance  from  which  the  impulse  came  or 
through  which  it  passed.  All  substances  and  elements 
in  the  terrestrial  system  were  classified  according  to 
their  electric  impulses.  Even  before  the  Limanorans 
brought  the  firla  to  its  high  state  of  sensitiveness  and 
efficiency,   they  had  been  able  to  examine   the   stars 


My  Education  Continued         259 

and  other  distant  bodies  and  analyse  their  elements  by 
means  of  this  classification  and  the  application  of  their 
alloy,  labramor.  Ever}-  substance  or  element  had  its 
place  in  their  tables  according  as  it  was  positive  or 
negative  in  its  electric  impulse  towards  some  other  sub 
stance  or  element;  and  all  its  affinities,  strong  or  weak, 
were  tabulated.  Thus  when  they  turned  their  monalan 
upon  any  distant  body  like  a  star  they  were  able  to 
analyse  its  elements  by  means  of  these  tables.  Even 
now  that  their  firla  interpreted  the  analysis  of  the 
monalan  without  the  intervention  of  classifications  and 
tables,  they  had  another  electrically  analystic  instru- 
ment which  appealed  to  the  eye;  this  turned  the  elec- 
tric impulse  into  a  flash  or  glow,  which  at  once  revealed 
in  the  inamar  or  spectroscope  the  substances  or  elements 
whence  it  had  come. 

Their  lower  or  more  material  senses  I  was  more 
nearly  able  to  approach,  even  though  they  too  were 
highly  intellectualised  and  were  more  the  servants  of 
the  spirit  than  of  the  animal  part.  In  developing  mine 
I  had  more  hope  of  raising  myself  to  the  Limanoran 
level,  and  yet  there  was  less  stimulus;  for  I  felt  that 
the}-  looked  down  upon  these  senses  of  smell,  taste,  and 
touch  because  of  their  need  of  close  contact  with  their 
objects;  they  were  the  primitive  senses;  the}'  were 
narrow  and  bound  down  to  immediate  matter,  and 
seemed  poor  gropers  in  the  finite  and  the  dark  com- 
pared with  those  rangers  of  infinity,  the  ear,  the  eye, 
and  the  electric  sense.  It  was  then  with  a  feeling  of 
humiliation  that  I  saw  those  lower  and  more  finite 
senses  in  me  develop  so  quickly,  proving  me  a  being  of 
a  more  primitive  and  material  type. 

Yet  there  was  no  neglect  of  these  in  their  education 
and  no  contempt  for  them  and  their  uses;  in  fact  con- 


260  Limanora 

tempt  was  one  of  the  vices  that  they  had  with  most 
pains  weeded  out  of  their  systems  and  civilisation. 
They  had  not  merely  considered  that  nothing  in  crea- 
tion, if  looked  into  scientifically,  was  worthy  of  con- 
tempt, but  that  contempt  was  the  truest  symptom  of 
crudity  of  character  and  ignorance  of  reality  and  na- 
ture. Even  if  they  had  had  any  remains  of  this  primal 
savagery,  they  would  not  have  felt  it  towards  those 
finite-seeking  senses.  They  only  set  themselves  to 
make  them  more  and  more  the  servants  of  the  soul, 
the  instruments  of  the  imagination.  They  rejected 
the  idea  that  the  arts  belonged  only  to  sight  and  hear- 
ing. Their  arts  of  the  firla  were  far  more  important 
and  striking  than  any  sculpture  or  painting  or  music 
could  be.  Not  merely  as  a  variation  on  these  and  a 
relief  from  them  did  they  have  arts  that  brought  in 
the  senses  of  smell  and  taste  and  touch;  these  had 
their  own  special  uses  in  their  civilisation.  All  of 
them,  but  especially  smell  and  taste,  were  closely 
linked  with  memory,  and  through  memory  with  imagi- 
nation. A  special  perfume  and  even  a  special  taste 
would  flash  before  the  mind  a  scene  or  fact  with  more 
vividness  than  even  a  piece  of  music  would. 

The  perfumes  and  tastes  had  been  classified  accord- 
ing to  their  affinity  to  certain  virtues  and  ideas  and  to 
the  great  deeds  and  scenes  which  best  represented  them. 
The  island  was  one  vast  flower-garden  at  all  seasons  of 
the  year,  arranged  not  alone  to  please  the  eye,  but  to 
bring  by  the  suggestion  of  their  perfumes  the  noblest 
virtues  and  deeds  constantly  into  the  mind.  For  ex- 
ample, wherever  a  child  or  youth  was  being  trained, 
the  flowers  possessing  certain  well-known  scents  which 
were  closely  connected  with  the  finest  qualities  and 
ideas  of  the  race  shone  profusely  yet  with  striking  art. 


My  Education  Continued         261 

The  art  of  the  gardening  famil)'  did  not  consist  merely 
in  arrangement  of  the  landscape  and  the  varied  colora- 
tion of  it.  The  scent  of  every  flower  had  to  be  taken 
into  consideration  and  the  faint  flavour  or  taste  the 
seed  or  fruit  might  produce  in  the  air  when  sent  adrift 
or  bruised.  The  problem  of  no  science  or  art  was  so 
complicated  as  that  of  gardening  in  this  island,  it  had 
to  take  account  of  so  many  senses,  seasons,  and  con- 
ditions of  growth.  They  were  never  done  with  creat- 
ing and  selecting  new  variations  of  flowers  and  plants, 
and  colour,  scent,  and  taste  in  the  vegetable  world  were 
as  adaptable  in  their  hands  as  tones  in  the  hands  of  their 
musical  composers.  Their  task  was  made  compara- 
tively easy  by  the  great  development  of  methods  and 
appliances  for  rapid  growth  and  decay.  They  had  not 
only  complete  command  of  the  weather  and  clouds  and 
sunshine;  but  they  could  bring  up  and  perfect  flowers 
in  a  few  nights  over  vast  areas  b)^  the  use  of  their 
streams  and  watering  platforms  and  of  artificial  light. 
When  the  Iyimanorans  slept,  wonders  were  being  ac- 
complished in  colouring  the  landscape;  for  first  some 
of  their  great  rivers  would  pour  refreshing  rain  all  over 
the  plains;  and  then  the  electric  glow,  brought  close 
over  the  plants,  would  develop  their  bloom-producing 
capacity.  As  careful  were  the  gardeners  that  no 
withering  or  dead  vegetable  matter  should  ever  taint 
the  air  of  the  island;  the  moment  one  set  of  blossoms 
had  perfected  and  shown  traces  of  decay,  an  electric 
pruner  ran  in  a  few  minutes  over  the  whole  area,  and 
not  merely  cut  them  off,  but  burnt  them  to  dust  that 
fell  on  the  roots  to  stimulate  the  new  growth  of  the 
plants.  As  soon  as  the  plants  had  passed  their  bloom- 
productive  point,  an  electric  life-destroyer  ploughed 
lightly  through  the  soil  in  all  directions;  and  by  the 


262  Limanora 

morning  what  had  been  profusely  flower-coloured  the 
day  before  was  brown  earth,  ready  for  the  new  plant- 
growth  of  next  day.  The  slow-growing  perennials 
and  bushes  and  trees  occupied  separate  and  fixed 
quarters  at  a  distance  from  the  residences  and  the  great 
centres  of  intercourse,  and  all  rampant  vegetation  and 
rotting  boughs  and  leaves  were  daily  turned  into  good 
soil  by  the  electric  weed-destroyer.  No  decay  was  ever 
allowed  to  approach  the  senses.  Their  knowledge  of 
the  secrets  of  the  soil  made  them  independent  of  rotting 
or  offensive  manures.  The  particular  elements  of  which 
any  kind  of  plant  or  flower  robbed  the  soil  were  ac- 
curately ascertained,  and  their  chemistry  enabled  them 
with  ease  to  supply  the  deficiency  after  a  crop  had 
been  removed. 

The  gardening  family  had  to  be  familiar  on  the  one 
hand  with  the  innermost  secrets  of  psychology,  and  on 
the  other  with  the  last  discoveries  of  the  more  material 
sciences;  for  no  one  could  avoid  the  effects  of  the 
flowers  and  trees,  as  he  could  painting  and  sculpture, 
music  and  firlamai.  Gardening,  in  short,  was  the  most 
public  of  all  the  arts  and  the  most  pervasive  in  its  re- 
sults. A  garden  (and  in  Iyimanora  there  was  only  one 
vast  garden)  was  a  great  mnemonic  instrument,  which 
could  play  upon  the  souls  of  the  whole  community  at 
once.  That  it  should  not  be  in  the  hands  of  novices, 
or  of  unwise  or  wrong-thoughted  men  and  women,  was 
one  of  the  prime  cares  of  the  people.  Of  all  families 
those  that  managed  the  garden  of  the  island  had  to  be 
most  simple-hearted  and  true,  most  sure  in  their  know- 
ledge of  the  human  heart,  and  most  eager  to  stir  to 
what  is  great  and  noble  and  humane.  They  were  the 
lords  of  the  sense  of  smell,  one  of  the  most  immediate 
portals  to  memory  and  to  imagination.     To  have  the 


My  Education  Continued         263 

complete  command  of  one  out  of  the  six  dominant 
sense-entrances  to  the  soul  was,  they  considered,  the 
greatest  of  responsibilities,  and  no  care  was  neglected 
in  selecting,  purifying,  and  training  the  families  of 
gardeners. 

They,  too,  had  the  superintendence  of  Ilarime,  a 
structure  devoted  to  the  arts  of  smell,  taste,  and  sound 
combined.  Aided  by  the  musicians  and  the  chemists, 
they  produced  symphonies  which  appealed  to  all  three 
senses  and  roused  the  imagination  to  exceptional 
flights.  The  imaginative  or  pioneering  families  fre- 
quented the  halls  of  this  great  building  daily  in  pursuit 
of  new  stimulus  to  their  faculty.  Every  chamber  in  it 
had  special  emotions  to  rouse.  A  garden  could  have 
only  a  mingled  effect  upon  the  memory  and  mnemonic 
imagination ;  Ilarime  separated  the  effects  and  classified 
the  emotions  and  imaginative  ideas  which  were  to  be 
stimulated.  Anyone  entering  could  find  out  at  the 
porch,  either  by  looking  in  the  index-chamber  or  by 
consulting  one  of  the  superintendents,  what  hall  or 
halls  he  ought  to  rest  in.  I  had  often  during  my  edu- 
cation to  take  refuge  in  Ilarime,  when  clogged  in  my 
endeavours  to  advance  by  dulness  of  memory  or  im- 
agination or  by  the  weakness  of  some  emotion.  After 
a  time  I  did  not  need  to  consult  a  guide;  I  knew  what 
element  in  my  soul  was  deficient  and  what  emotion  or 
memory  would  stir  it  to  activity,  and  by  aid  of  the 
index-hall  and  its  graphic  representation  of  the  effect 
of  every  chamber  upon  the  spirit  I  could  choose  what 
symphony  I  needed.  As  soon  as  I  had  entered  the 
hall  that  I  had  chosen,  I  lay  down  on  one  of  their 
hanging  rests  and  shut  my  eyes.  At  once  the  medi- 
cated atmosphere  began  to  affect  my  palate,  whilst 
the  delicate  perfume  entered  my  nostrils  and  my  ears 


264  Limanora 

drank  in  the  sweet-sounding  music.  Before  many 
minutes  had  passed  memories  of  striking  scenes  I  had 
witnessed  or  heard  of  or  seen  represented  in  the  island 
began  to  rise  in  my  mind,  and  the  emotion  I  needed 
thrilled  me  through;  if  it  was  heroism  or  courage,  I 
felt  myself  urged  to  deeds  of  valour;  if  it  was  benevo- 
lence, I  was  soon  inclined  to  rush  to  the  help  of  the 
suffering  and  the  poor;  if  it  was  hope,  I  saw  bright 
visions  of  the  future. 

But  this  exercise  was  too  passive  to  be  allowed  for 
any  length  of  time.  The  imagination  and  emotions 
were  apt  to  gain  at  the  expense  of  the  will  and  the 
nervous  energy  by  too  frequent  resort  to  Ilarime. 
Strenuous  endeavour  was  held  to  be  one  of  the  prime 
essentials  of  progress,  not  only  in  the  race,  but  even 
more  in  the  individual.  And,  though  all  the  prevail- 
ing odours  and  tastes  and  sounds  of  the  island  were 
agreeable,  the  L,imanorans  carried  with  them  a  small 
instrument,  called  margol,  that  by  an  adaptation  of 
electricity  could  blunt  at  will  the  acuteness  of  smelling 
and  tasting  and  hearing,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  reduce 
the  powers  of  perfumes  and  flavours  and  sounds;  it 
acted  by  drying  the  air  around  the  head  and  drawing 
the  moisture  and  heat  from  the  nostrils,  the  tongue, 
and  the  ears.  It  was  partly  to  mitigate  the  force  of 
smells  and  tastes  and  sounds  that  they  always  kept  the 
atmosphere  dry  and  cool  by  day.  In  the  margol,  too, 
there  was  a  combination  of  chemicals  and  electricity 
which  would  modify  any  odour  or  flavour  to  suit  the 
taste;  but  if  they  wished  to  increase  the  strength  of 
any  perfume  or  taste,  they  applied  electric  heat  to  the 
source  of  it,  and  moistened  the  nostrils  and  the  mouth. 
It  was  one  of  the  new  peculiarities  of  the  race  that 
the  mucous  and  salivary  flow  was  under  the  command 


My  Education  Continued         265 

of  the  will,  and  they  could  smell  and  taste  with  satis- 
faction to  themselves  without  the  aid  of  moisture  on 
the  organs. 

Their  senses  of  smell  and  taste  had  become  by  means 
of  their  acuteness  what  they  were  originally  meant  to 
be,  the  guardians  of  the  throat  and  the  digestion. 
They  told  with  accuracy  the  nature  of  the  substances 
brought  to  the  mouth ;  whatsoever  would  be  deleterious 
to  the  system  was  offensive.  In  most  civilised  peoples 
what  is  grateful  to  the  palate  and  the  olfactory  nerves 
is  often  pernicious  to  some  tissue  of  the  body  or  some 
faculty  of  the  mind.  Here  the  two  senses  were  the 
true  friends  and  protectors  of  both  body  and  soul ;  there 
was  no  seducing  them  or  bribing  them  into  evil  or  irra- 
tional reports,  so  completely  had  they  been  saturated 
with  reason. 

In  the  medical,  chemical,  and  alimentary  families 
these  senses  were  trained  to  a  pitch  that  seemed  to  me 
marvellous.  By  either  smell  or  taste  a  member  of  these 
families  could  tell  the  constituent  elements  of  any 
compound.  A  medical  sage,  if  a  man,  could  distinguish 
by  the  faint  odour  that  marked  each  human  body 
whether  it  was  losing  energy  or  expending  it,  making 
progress  or  decaying;  if  a  woman,  the  sage,  in  order  to 
make  this  decision,  had  as  a  rule  to  bring  in  the  help 
of  taste;  for  it  had  remained  from  the  primitive  ani- 
mal stage  of  man's  development  one  of  the  differentiat- 
ing marks  of  sex  that  the  male  had  more  energy  of 
smell,  the  female  more  energy  of  taste;  now  that  they 
had  so  spiritualised  their  senses,  perfumes  formed  the 
quickest  stimulus  of  the  masculine  imagination  and 
flavours  of  the  feminine.  At  the  food  vats  it  was 
always  the  Limanoran  women  who  superintended  the 
flavouring  of  any  compound;    whilst  it  was  the  men 


266  Limanora 

who  had  most  to  do  with  medicating  the  atmospheres 
of  the  chambers,  and  men  presided  in  the  chemical 
laboratories.  The  historical  origin  of  this  distinction, 
they  thought,  was  on  the  one  hand  the  development 
of  the  acuteness  of  smell  in  male  animals  at  rutting 
time,  and  on  the  other  the  power  in  dams  of  recognis- 
ing their  own  offspring  by  licking  it  with  the  tongue. 
And  it  was  a  well-known  maxim  in  their  medical 
families  that  every  individual  had  a  distinctive  odour 
and  taste.  They  could  tell  one  man  from  another  in 
the  dark,  and  even  at  a  considerable  distance;  and  to 
touch  him  with  the  tongue  was  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure.  The  kissing  that  was  so  common  in  the 
West  as  a  symbol  of  friendship  and  love,  like  the  rub- 
bing of  noses  amongst  less  civilised  peoples,  had  as  its 
origin  and  basis  the  recognition  of  the  individual  by 
the  taste  or  smell.  They  did  not  need  so  close  or  ma- 
terial an  investigation  of  the  individual  to  have  pleasant 
memories  of  friendship  aroused.  Their  methods  and 
symbols  of  companionship  and  love  had  become  more 
and  more  spiritual  with  the  passion  itself. 

But,  preternaturally  acute  though  their  senses 
seemed  to  me  to  be,  they  would  rely  upon  their  de- 
cisions no  more  than  the  modern  scientist  of  the  West 
would  rely  upon  his.  Error,  they  held,  was  ever 
maiming  the  conclusions  from  reports  of  the  senses, 
and  they  took  every  precaution  in  recording  or  using 
their  own  perceptions.  Accurate  though  their  sense- 
memory  was,  they  had  instruments  which  kept  a  per- 
manent record  of  any  report  of  the  senses  they  meant 
to  use  again.  Not  merely  sounds  and  sights  did  they 
automatically  record,  but  perfumes,  and  flavours,  and 
electric  impressions.  Ages  before,  the  inasan  or  re- 
corder of  light  and  the  linasan  or  recorder  of  sound  had 


My  Education  Continued         267 

been  brought  to  a  high  pitch  of  perfection;  all  the 
colours  and  forms  seen  in  nature,  at  whatever  distance, 
could  be  kept  in  permanence  on  irelium-plates  and  re- 
produced to  the  eye  by  the  insertion  of  the  plates  in  the 
inasau  and  the  reversal  of  the  instrument.  So  was  it 
with  sounds,  however  loud  or  faint;  the  linasan  would 
tell  out  to  the  ear  music  or  speeches  recorded  hundreds 
of  years  before  down  to  the  minutest  tone.  By  a  modi- 
fication of  these  two  instruments  they  took  record  of 
the  inner  structure  of  things  even  at  cosmic  distances, 
and  of  sounds  which  seemed  to  be  intercepted  by  vast 
material  obstructions.  The  development  of  the  re- 
corders of  the  other  senses  had  been  more  recent;  not 
till  perfumes  and  tastes  and  electricity  had  begun  to 
enter  largely  into  education  and  the  stimulance  of 
memory  did  the  necessity  for  such  instruments  arise. 
In  the  earlier  times  before  the  purgation  of  the  race 
these  instruments  would  have  been  a  temptation  to 
new  and  epicurean  vices.  Now  they  were  nothing  if 
not  educational  aids.  The  farosan  or  aromagraph 
enabled  the  gardeners  to  arrange  the  mnemonic  har- 
monies of  flowers  as  mere  sense-memory  could  never 
have  done;  it  could  reproduce  any  subtle  perfume  or 
mixture  of  perfumes  that  had  ever  been  experienced  in 
the  island.  The  salosan  or  gustagraph  gave  incalcul- 
able aid  to  the  chemical  and  alimentary  families;  with- 
out its  permanencies  of  flavour  they  would  have  fallen 
into  daily  errors  in  mingling  the  atmospheres  of  the 
halls  of  sustenance  and  medication  and  those  of  Ilarime. 
By  its  aid  they  could  recall  any  of  the  tastes  which 
had  made  substances  or  compounds  pleasing  to  the 
palate.  But  it  was  the  idrosan  or  electrograph  that 
was  most  needed;  for  the  firla  or  electric  sense  had 
been  so  recently  developed  that  its  reports  as  to  the 


268  Limanora 

amount  and  quality  of  any  electric  impulse  were  most 
untrustworthy.  Without  the  aid  of  this  recorder  they 
could  never  have  compared  the  electric  impulses  of  the 
past  with  those  of  the  present,  nor  could  they  have 
been  so  accurate  in  measuring  the  electric  powers  of 
various  substances. 

They  knew  that  the  basis  of  all  scientific  advance 
was  accurate  measurement.  Their  old  measuring  in- 
struments had  gradually  been  overtaken  by  their  own 
senses,  and  had  to  be  replaced  by  others  more  and  more 
refined.  In  order  to  make  sure  that  their  senses  in- 
troduced no  personal  element  into  the  reports  and  re- 
presentations of  their  various  delicate  measurers,  they 
had  invented  an  instrument  which  for  fine  adjustment 
surpassed  all  of  these.  It  was  the  airolan  or  senso- 
meter,  and  by  it  the  medical  families  in  their  weekly 
review  of  every  system  in  the  community  were  enabled 
to  find  the  exact  personal  equation  of  each.  It  re- 
corded the  upper  and  lower  limit  of  the  various  sens- 
ations, the  limit  of  endurance,  and  the  vanishing 
point.  Although  there  was  a  great  evenness  in  the 
development  of  the  senses  in  the  community,  there 
was  yet  considerable  variation  in  the  delicacy  of  per- 
ception. One  man  was  keenest  in  sight,  another  in 
hearing,  a  third  in  the  electric  sense,  yet  there  was  a 
certain  constancy  or  proportion  in  all  the  senses  of 
every  man,  a  proportion  varying  according  to  well-as- 
certained laws  with  the  hour  and  the  season,  the  man's 
age,  and  the  temperature  and  health  of  his  body.  The 
airolan  tested,  measured,  and  recorded  the  regular  vari- 
ations of  each  Limanoran's  senses,  and  thus  he  was 
able  to  know  how  far  he  judged  accurately  anything 
he  perceived.  By  its  aid  he  was  able  to  know  the  exact 
point  at  which  he  would  need  to  call  in  any  one  of  the 


My  Education  Continued         269 

various  mechanical  aids  to  the  senses,  the  magnifiers, 
or  modifiers,  or  distance-reducers.  By  its  means  they 
were  able  to  gauge  the  proper  mixture  of  colours  and 
proper  size  in  architecture  that  would  please  at  certain 
distances.  By  its  means,  too,  they  could  accurately 
measure  the  distance  from  which  any  electric  or  lumin- 
ous or  somniferous  impulse  had  come,  when  it  struck 
on  the  senses. 

It  was  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  their  policy  that 
whatever  could  be  done  by  machinery  it  was  waste  of 
skill  and  energy  to  do  by  human  labour  and  thought; 
and  instruments  were  generally  more  exact  and  reliable 
than  the  senses  and  active  powers  of  man,  however 
delicately  developed  and  refined.  Of  course  man's  brain 
and  hand  must  still  guide  and  superintend  all  instru- 
ments and  machinery,  but  his  interference  with  their 
automatic  working  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  in  order 
that  the  discount  for  personal  equation  should  be  as 
little  as  possible.  It  was  not,  however,  so  much  for 
the  sake  of  accuracy  of  result  that  mechanism  was 
substituted  for  human  work,  as  for  the  sake  of  progress. 
Every  operation  and  function  which  could  be  performed 
mechanically  it  was  a  slur  upon  human  dignity  to  do; 
and  at  once  Limanoran  humanity  was  relieved  from 
the  necessity,  and  the  freed  energy  was  applied  to  other 
and  nobler  efforts  towards  progress. 

During  my  education  I  had  noticed  again  and  again 
with  surprise  that  mathematics  took  no  part  in  it.  Not 
once  had  I  heard  the  subject  mentioned  by  any  of  my 
guides  or  companions.  I  remembered  the  important 
place  it  held  in  Western  curriculums,  and  wondered 
how  the  various  scientific  families  could  manage  their 
abstruse  formulae  and  calculations  without  that  science. 
A  people  that  laid  so  much  stress  on  exactitude  of 


270  Limanora 

research  as  an  essential  of  all  scientific  progress  were 
surely  lax  to  a  degree  in  failing  to  train  their  youth  in 
the  various  branches  of  mathematics. 

On  having  my  senses  tested  by  the  airolan,  the 
thought  came  uppermost  in  my  mind  again;  and  my 
proparents  at  last  took  notice  of  it,  perhaps  as  the  time 
had  arrived  for  enlightening  me  on  the  subject.  They 
led  me  to  a  vast  museum-like  building,  crammed  with 
all  kinds  of  small  and  intricate  machines,  not  unlike  a 
kind  of  patent  office,  where  the  models  of  new  inven- 
tions are  deposited  for  examination  and  comparison. 
There  was  evident  in  the  arrangement  a  careful  classi- 
fication according  to  elaboration  and  delicacy.  In  the 
first  section  we  entered  there  were  the  simplest  of  ma- 
chines, having  a  few  levers  and  cog-wheels,  and  a  few 
keys  set  in  a  keyboard;  these  were  meant  for  the  easier 
rules  of  calculation, — addition,  subtraction,  multiplica- 
tion, and  division.  We  tested  most  of  them  and  I 
saw  that  they  were  infallibly  accurate;  never  once 
even  in  the  longest  and  most  intricate  calculation  was 
there  any  error.  In  fact,  these  machines  had  been 
first  invented  to  avoid  the  constant  errors  that  vitiated 
important  results  when  novices  were  set  to  work  them 
out.  It  was  then  found  that  not  only  did  they  rid 
calculations  of  fallibility  and  the  youth  of  heartless 
drudgery,  but  they  enabled  the  race  to  advance  more 
rapidly.  They  set  free  years  of  life,  especially  in  the 
formative  stage,  that  had  been  wasted  on  mere  routine 
and  mechanical  work;  and,  best  of  all,  they  allowed 
the  tissues  of  young  brains  to  be  less  rigid.  It  was 
noted  that,  after  the  calculating  machines  were  set 
to  work,  the  youth  grew  in  mental  and  especially  in  im- 
aginative power  at  twice  the  old  rate.  The  elders  of 
the  state  were  amazed  at  the  result,  prizing  as  they 


My  Education  Continued         271 

had  done  the  effect  of  arithmetic  in  the  discipline  aud 
education  of  the  young;  indeed,  it  had  been  with 
great  regret  that  they  saw  the  youth  relieved  of  so 
disciplinary  an  exercise;  and  they  even  thought  of 
making  an  exception  to  their  usual  utilitarian  state- 
principle,  and  training  the  boys  and  girls  in  rapid  cal- 
culation, although  it  would  be  of  so  little  use  to  them 
in  their  after-lives.  But  a  few  years  convinced  them 
of  the  serious  mistake  they  had  made.  The  pace  of 
development  so  suddenly  and  greatly  quickened  in  the 
new  generation  that  the  result  could  be  set  down  to 
nothing  else  than  the  new  freedom  from  calculations. 
Their  own  faculties  aud  imagination  seemed  stiff  and 
almost  ossified  compared  to  the  ease  and  flexibility  of 
those  of  their  sons  and  daughters.  Invention  and  dis- 
covery struck  out  with  unprecedented  energy,  and  the 
ethical  and  emotional  phase  of  imagination  grew  at  a 
marvellous  pace;  new  ideal  realms  were  opened  out  for 
morality  and  practical  thought. 

The  experience  threw  a  remarkable  light  upon  a 
phenomenon  which  had  puzzled  them  for  generations. 
After  the  period  of  youth  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity had  to  specialise;  and  for  some  undiscoverable 
reason  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  mathematics 
and  the  working  of  abstruse  formulae  had  been  found, 
able  though  most  of  them  were,  to  be  the  most  rigidly 
unreasonable  in  the  community;  they  refused  to  admit 
that  they  could  be  mistaken  in  any  of  their  judgments 
or  even  opinions;  nothing  would  move  them, — neither 
logical  argument  nor  emotional  appeal;  they  assumed 
that  they  had  found  absolute  truth,  and  refused  to 
have  compromise.  In  one  generation  in  the  far  past 
the  mathematical  families  had  to  be  exiled,  so  serious 
an  obstruction  had  they  become  to  progress.     Again 


272  Limanora 

they  had  been  completely  renewed,  children  of  the 
most  noble-minded,  freest,  and  most  imaginative  fami- 
lies being  substituted  for  the  old  members,  and  trained 
to  fulfil  their  functions;  within  a  generation  the  result 
was  the  same;  these  scions  of  the  finest  of  the  race 
became  as  narrow-minded  and  obstructive  as  their  pre- 
decessors had  been.  It  seemed  to  be  useless  to  change 
the  stock,  and  for  some  generations  the  community  ac- 
cepted their  conservatism  and  obstinacy  as  inevitable; 
they  grew  accustomed  to  smiling  at  the  mathematical 
families  as  "  the  omniscients." 

Why  the  true  cause  of  this  degeneracy  had  not  oc- 
curred to  such  a  shrewd  and  logical  people  it  is  hard 
to  say;  probably  because  they  were  so  wedded  by  long 
tradition  and  practice  to  the  idea  that  mathematics  was 
one  of  the  loftiest  of  sciences  and  one  of  the  most  es- 
sential elements  in  education.  They  doubtless  refused 
to  reconsider  its  claims  or  to  abandon  their  inherited 
reverence  for  it.  But  the  discovery  of  the  effect  of 
the  calculative  habit  on  the  tissues  of  the  brain  at  last 
forced  them  to  face  the  true  cause  of  the  infallibility  of 
the  mathematical  families.  It  was  their  occupation 
that  caused  their  degeneracy.  Men  began  to  pity  them 
for  the  slavery  in  which  they  had  been  so  long  held 
and  to  devise  means  for  their  liberating.  The  old 
habitual  smile  at  the  mention  of  their  name  became 
sadness  at  the  thought  of  what  these  members  of  the 
race  might  have  accomplished  for  its  civilisation  had 
they  not  been  so  frozen  in  their  tissues  by  the  perpetual 
use  of  formulae.  They  were  amazed  at  their  own  dul- 
uess  in  failing  to  see  that  men  who  dealt  in  such  me- 
chanical methods  and  exact  results  could  not  but  be 
mechanical  themselves  and  easily  fall  into  the  fixed 
mental  attitude  of  the  omniscient,  and  dealing  with  a 


My  Education  Continued         273 

world  so  unreal  in  its  stiff,  skeleton-like  outlines  could 
not  but  fail  in  a  world  of  conditions  and  compromises. 
At  first  the  prevailing  idea  was  that  all  the  studies 
and  sciences  needing  exactitude  of  formulae  and  result 
should  be  neglected  by  the  community.     On  considera- 
tion it  was  felt  that  some  of  the  most  valuable  stepping- 
stones  to  the   loftier  ideals  of  the   future  would   be 
sacrificed  if  this  were  done.     The  other  alternative  was 
chosen.     The  inventors  who  had  made  the  calculating 
machines  were  set  on  to  find  instruments  which  would 
accomplish  what  the  mathematicians  had  had  to  do  for 
the  community.     And,  one  after  the  other,  the  years 
had  produced  them.     Even  differential  and   integral 
calculus  had  been  superseded  by  a  series  of  machines 
that  with  little  guidance  worked  out  all  the  applications 
of  their  intricate  formulas  to  the  sciences.     As  we  ad- 
vanced from   department  to  department  we  watched 
these  machines  at  work  confirming  the  imaginative  re- 
sults of  the  physicists,  the  chemists,  and  the  astronom- 
ers.    The  mathematical  families  were  relieved  of  their 
duties  and  distributed,  and  every  member  of  the  scien- 
tific families  was  taught  to  use  all  these  formulating 
instruments.     Their  brain-energy  was  not  monopolised 
by  calculations;    the  use  of  the  machines  was  but  a 
routine  detail  in  their  wider  intellectual  life,  and  ab- 
sorbed so  little  of  their  energy  that  it  seemed  to  have 
no  effect  on  their  faculties. 

I  was  not  many  days  in  mastering  the  details  of  the 
formula-machines;  for  I  had  paid  some  attention  to 
mathematics  in  my  buried  life  and  the  memory  of  the 
subject  rapidly  revived.  I  soon  came  to  see  the  wisdom 
of  the  Limanorans  in  eliminating  the  study  from  their 
scheme  of  education.  It  would  have  been  the  height 
of  extravagance  to  waste  long  periods  of  their  lives  in 


274  Limanora 

studying  and  doing  what  a  machine  could  do  better. 
It  was  exactly  the  kind  of  work  best  done  by  a  ma- 
chine, for  it  had  to  do  with  a  world  rid  of  all  conditions 
and,  mathematically  speaking,  perfect.  The  inventors 
were  still  busy  making  new  and  simpler  machines  for 
the  use  of  the  scientists;  and,  though  they  had  to  know 
the  new  mathematical  formulae  needed,  they  busied 
their  brains  rather  with  their  practical  application  and 
with  the  machinery  that  would  use  them.  It  was 
imagination  in  the  practice  of  mechanics  rather  than 
the  mechanical  use  of  methods  and  formulae  that  they 
were  engaged  on.  Hence  it  was  that  they  avoided 
the  old  unpracticality  of  the  mathematical  families,  and 
stood  in  no  danger  of  thinking  themselves  infallible 
and  the  only  treasuries  of  absolute  truth. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  departments  of  Minella, 
as  this  great  building  was  called,  was  that  which  con- 
tained the  measurers  of  time.  I  was  somewhat  sur- 
prised that  this  department  should  exist,  for  I  had 
admired  every  day  the  power  the  L,imanoraus  had  of 
telling  to  a  minute  fraction  the  passage  of  time.  Their 
sense  of  time  seemed  to  me  to  make  watches  and  clocks 
superfluous.  Even  when  the  sky  was  clouded  over 
and  no  heavenly  body  or  light  to  be  perceived,  they 
could  tell  the  exact  fraction  of  the  day  or  night  that 
had  passed,  as  I  tested  again  and  again  by  the  watch  I 
had  brought  with  me.  Their  knowledge  of  the  natural 
signs  of  the  time  of  day  or  year  had  become  instinctive 
and  automatic  through  long  centuries  of  daily  use. 
The  position  and  state  of  the  petals  of  flowers  would 
at  any  moment  by  day  or  night,  by  shine  or  cloud,  re- 
veal to  them  the  time.  So  would  the  temperature  of 
anything  they  touched,  or,  if  it  were  highly  contractile, 
its  size.     But  these  external  signs  were  quite  unneces- 


My  Education  Continued         275 

sary.  They  had  not  to  go  beyond  the  sensations  of 
their  own  bodies  to  tell  the  time  or  season.  They  knew 
by  the  intensity  of  the  magnetism  in  them,  by  the 
acuteness  of  their  senses,  by  the  amount  of  energy 
they  could  command. 

But  their  experiments  needed  far  more  exactness 
than  even  their  senses  could  afford.     Time  had  to  be 
counted  in  their  science  not  by  mere  seconds,  but  by 
the  hundred-thousandth,  or  even  the  millionth,   part 
of  a  second.     One  old-fashioned  measurer  of  time  was 
based  on  the  length  of  a  wave  of  sound  as  it  passed 
through  a  vessel  of  water.     The  length  of  the  vessel 
contained  a  round  number  of  moltas  (their  smallest 
measure  of  length,  perhaps  about  the  millionth  part  of 
an  inch);  the  vibration  in  the  water  reflected  a  bright 
light  through  a  microscope  and  camera  combined;  and  a 
photograph  of  the  pulsations  imprinted  itself  on  a  strip 
of  irelium  that  kept  moving  with  lightning  swiftness 
across  the  focus;    this  strip  was  divided  into  minute 
sections,  each  of  them  corresponding  to  a  lenta  or  mil- 
lionth part  of  a  second  and  numbered  in  order  up  to  a 
million.     A  newer  clock  had  its  principle  based  on  the 
length  of  a  wave  of  light  in  a  vacuum.     Another  and 
more  convenient  clock,  or  rather  watch,  consisted  of 
an  electric  battery  that  kept  a  light  irelium  tongue 
vibrating;  this  latter  controlled  a  graduated  mechan- 
ism which  pointed  out  on  a  face  the  exact  lenta  in  the 
time  of  day  that  it  was.     It  was  small  enough  to  be 
carried  about  on  the  person  like  a  watch. 

A  similar  microscopic  minuteness  of  division  appeared 
in  all  their  weights  and  measures.  They  could  weigh 
in  their  balances  down  to  the  million-millionth  part&of 
an  ounce.  So  with  their  measurement  of  heat  and 
cold;  their  thermometers  could  test  ten  thousand  times 


276  Limanora 

the  range  of  temperature  that  their  senses  could  bear, 
although  their  power  of  endurance  of  fire  and  frost  was 
to  me  something  miraculous;  their  furnaces  were  able 
to  volatilise  the  most  refractory  of  metals  and  earths; 
they  could  reproduce  the  conditions  of  the  most  glow- 
ing suns,  and  also  the  temperature  of  the  coldest 
interstellar  space,  which,  age  by  age,  they  were  bring- 
ing their  frames  gradually  to  bear  with  the  aid  of  cer- 
tain foods  and  combinations  of  elements.  Thus  did 
they  hope  in  some  future  age  to  subsist,  even  when 
they  ventured  outside  of  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth. 

All  their  measures  were  based  on  the  decimal  system, 
the  fundamental  unit  for  microscopic  measurements 
being  the  amount  of  energy  in  an  atom  of  one  of  their 
elements,  and  that  for  cosmic  measurements  the  energy 
that  would  bring  a  beam  of  light  from  the  sun's  surface 
to  the  earth's.  They  were  able  to  see  at  a  glance  the 
exact  amount  of  energy  in  any  phenomenon,  to  what- 
ever sense  it  might  appeal,  and  in  their  minds  there 
was  ever  a  common  measure  for  all  types  of  force. 
Their  electrometers  and  magnetometers  told  not  merely 
the  amount  of  electricity  or  magnetism  in  any  machine, 
material,  or  phenomenon,  but  the  motive-power  it  would 
have  when  applied  to  any  purpose.  They  could  com- 
pare at  a  glance,  without  any  elaborate  calculations, 
the  advantages  to  be  obtained  from  any  substance  when 
using  it  as  a  force,  whether  through  the  electricity  or 
the  heat  or  the  gravitational  power  to  be  obtained  from 
it. 

Especially  useful  was  this  common  measure  in  deal- 
ing with  the  power  of  light  as  separate  from  that  of 
heat.  It  was  of  great  importance  to  them  to  know  the 
exact  amount  of  energy  even  in  a  beam  of  light  which 
their  eyes  could  not  perceive.     For  they  used  sunshine 


My  Education  Continued         iyj 

as  one  of  their  great  curative  agencies,  and  the  medical 
families  were  constantly  experimenting  on  the  effect  of 
more  or  less  light  upon  the  microscopic  life  existing  in 
and  around  the  human  body.  One  of  their  own  new 
developments  had  been  the  consciousness  of  light  all 
over  their  skin ;  they  could  tell  with  eyes  shut  whether 
it  was  the  light  of  sun,  stars,  or  moon,  or  an  artificial 
light  which  was  falling  on  any  part  of  tbeir  body;  the 
effect,  even  on  the  mind,  differed  completely  in  the  four; 
the  sunlight,  or  at  least  a  certain  amount  of  it,  gave 
exhilaration  or  even  joy;  the  starshine  brought  con- 
templative melancholy;  the  moonbeam  mildly  stirred 
the  passions;  whilst  artificial  light  varied  in  its  power 
of  exhausting  brain  and  nerve  energy  with  the  material 
or  element  that  produced  it. 

Sunlight  deprived  of  the  intensity  of  its  heat  was  to 
them  one  of  the  essentials  of  life.  Its  bactericidal 
power  had  been  scientifically  proved  ages  before,  and  a 
family  had  been  set  apart  for  testing  its  effects  both 
qualitatively  and  quantitatively.  It  was  not  merely  a 
loose  knowledge  that  they  had  acquired  of  the  anti- 
septic influence  of  sunshine.  They  had  measured  ex- 
actly its  power  of  depriving  microbes  of  their  deadliness 
in  the  case  of  every  disease;  and  they  knew  to  a  nicety 
how  strong  or  weak  it  would  be  needed  in  order  to 
check  their  ravages  in  any  constitution,  whether  con- 
centrated on  a  spot  or  diluted  and  spread  as  in  a  bath, 
how  long  daily  its  application  would  be  required,  and 
how  many  days.  It  was  this  family  that  superintended 
the  sunbaths  in  their  halls  of  medication,  and  assisted 
the  medical  sages  in  advising  as  to  their  use.  It  was 
true  that  daylight,  and  especially  that  of  a  sunny  day, 
swept  one  third  of  the  noxious  life  out  of  all  water  open 
to  its  influence,  whilst  the  rays  of  the  sun  bleached 


278  Limanora 

most  bacteria  of  their  pestiferous  tendency.  Yet  used 
indiscriminately  sunshine  became  itself  unwholesome, 
because  of  the  other  forms  of  energy  besides  light  that 
it  brought  with  it  from  the  sun  and  the  intervening 
spaces.  If  not  used  with  caution,  it  would  destroy  the 
microscopic  allies  of  human  life  in  the  body,  rendering 
feeble  the  phagocytes  that  devour  the  virulent  microbes; 
it  would  by  its  great  heat  injure  the  delicate  tissues 
of  the  brain,  and  by  its  magnetism  and  weight  press 
heavily  on  the  nerves  and  the  circulation.  It  was  the 
duty  of  the  solometric  family  to  rid  it  of  its  unwholesome 
elements,  and  to  indicate  the  exact  amount  and  use  of 
it  that  would  be  beneficial  in  every  state  of  the  body. 
Another  of  the  duties  of  this  family  was  to  cultivate 
colonies  of  microbes  of  the  various  diseases  and  make 
them  harmless  by  means  of  sunlight  for  use  in  inocula- 
tions against  their  own  unmodified  bacterial  kin.  One 
of  their  greatest  aids  in  this  process  was  the  use  of  the 
water  of  the  sea;  wherever  it  did  not  kill  the  bacteria 
completely,  it  emphasised  the  bleaching  power  of  sun- 
light over  them  and  rendered  them  the  allies  of  the 
human  system  in  its  struggle  against  all  disease  and 
decay.  This  sterilisation  of  disease  was  one  of  the 
most  important  functions  of  the  family.  It  was  they 
who  led  the  flight-gambols  of  the  Limanorans  into  the 
outer  fringe  of  the  atmosphere,  where  they  might  drink 
in  the  elixir  of  unadulterated  sunshine;  their  guidance 
and  contrivances  were  needed  even  there,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  action  of  the  other  energies  in  the  light 
growing  deleterious.  Even  moonlight  and  starshiue 
had  their  uses  in  the  hands  of  this  skilled  family.  They 
could  separate  the  deadly  or  poisonous  elements  of 
moonbeams  to  help  them  in  destroying  bacterial  life, 
and  leave  only  their  healthy  and  inspiring  tendencies; 


My  Education  Continued         279 

thus  dealt  with,  the  rays  of  the  moon  gave  a  stimulus 
to  the  brain-tissues  which  worked  up  imaginative  ma- 
terials. And  every  star  had,  in  their  science,  its  own 
peculiar  influence,  sometimes  malign,  more  commonly 
beneficial,  when  treated  according  to  their  wise  dis- 
coveries. 

Little  of  all  this  would  have  been  possible  without 
the  iuolan  or  measurer  of  light,  one  of  the  most  delicate 
instruments  they  possessed.     This  was  but  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  human  eye  as  it  had  been  developed  in  their 
bodies.     It  magnified  the  impression  made  on  the  lens 
so  that  it  should  move  a  small  mirror  delicately  hung 
in  vacuo;    the  reflection  of  this   mirror  ran  along  a 
graduated  scale  on  which  it  recorded  by  bleaching  a 
point  of  colour,  the  energy  of  light  in  the  beam  pro- 
ducing the  movement.     This  recorded  not  merely  the 
strength  of  the  rays  of  which  their  eyes  were  conscious, 
but  that  of  many  octaves  of  light  outside  of  the  range 
of  all    human   eyes.      A    more  modern    and   delicate 
form  of  the  inolan  used  a  microscopic  camera  as  the 
medium  of  measurement;   this  had  accomplished  new 
wonders  in  the  way  of  measuring  the  power  of  rays  from 
stars  out  of  reach  of  the  human  eye.   A  third  photometer, 
recently  invented  and  still  untested  when  I  visited  the 
collection  of  measurers,  had  made  use  of  electricity  in 
collecting  and  testing  the  quality  and  energy  of  beams 
of  light. 

In  all  of  these  forms  of  the  inolan  there  was  an  ar- 
rangement for  ridding  each  ray  of  its  heat  and  of  other 
forms  of  energy  before  it  entered  the  lens ;  a  thermometer 
measured  the  heat;  and  the  other  elements  were  ab- 
sorbed and  analysed  by  a  subsidiary  apparatus  as  the 
beam  approached  the  inolan.  Another  modification  of 
the  apparatus  had  a  prismatic  arrangement  attached  to 


280  Limanora 

it,  not  unlike  their  inamar,  and  this  broke  up  the  beam 
of  light  into  its  colour  components;  the  inolan  measured 
each  separate  component,  the  length  of  its  wave,  and 
the  energy  required  to  produce  it,  its  camera  also  re- 
cording in  photographic  form  the  metallic  elements 
through  which  the  beam  had  passed.  A  more  recent 
modification,  promising  great  results,  was  one  which 
by  means  of  a  vacuum-lens  recorded  the  dark  beams 
that  shone  from  unseen  stellar  bodies  through  the 
corona  of  our  own  or  other  suns.  When  fully  de- 
veloped they  expected  this  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the 
darker  depths  of  the  heavens;  the  systems  revolving 
round  the  stars  would  stand  out  clearly  with  all  their 
elements  for  the  investigation  of  the  astronomic 
families. 

Nor  did  the  extraordinary  refinement  of  these  instru- 
ments, that  were  constantly  being  discovered,  interfere 
in  any  way  with  the  development  of  L,imanoran  senses. 
On  the  contrary  they  stimulated  advance.  Every  new 
aid  to  any  sense  pointed  the  way  to  its  improvement; 
and  in  a  few  years  or  generations  this  aid  was  rendered 
almost  superfluous  and  a  new  and  more  delicate  ma- 
chine must  be  invented;  for  the  combination  of  so 
many  functions  in  the  living  body  rendered  the  ob- 
servations of  any  one  sense  less  exact  and  trustworthy 
than  those  of  a  machine  which  had  but  one  purpose. 

Thus  the  evolution  of  the  senses  kept  up  an  unending 
race  with  the  evolution  of  fine  machinery  to  aid  them. 
Even  the  roughest,  most  material,  and  least  specialised 
of  all  the  senses,  touch,  had  grown  into  something  that 
was  most  delicate  in  its  manipulation ;  and  one  of  the 
most  important  parts  of  the  education  of  my  senses 
was  to  refine  and  develop  it.  They  had  specialised  it 
to  an   astonishing  degree.      The  lips,   especially  the 


My  Education  Continued         281 

outer  edges  of  them,  were  able  to  distinguish  the  latent 
energy  in  any  substance  applied  to  them;  whilst  a  deli- 
cate fringe  of  hair  upon  the  upper  lip,  too  minute  to  be 
seen  by  ordinary  eyes,  revealed  to  them  the  movements 
and  character  of  gases  and  vapours  that  were  so  faint 
in  their  impulse  as  to  be  unrecognisable  by  the  other 
senses.  The  measurement  of  force  had  been  raised  to 
a  high  point  of  exactness  in  their  huge  chests  and 
shoulders.  Their  hands,  within  certain  limits,  felt 
temperature  with  the  accuracy  and  minuteness  of  a 
thermometer.  And  the  prehensile  and  manipulative 
skill  of  their  fingers  far  surpassed  that  of  the  ablest 
European  conjuror  I  had  ever  seen.  Without  any  in- 
tention to  outwit  my  senses,  they  would  do  things 
with  their  hands  so  swiftly  that  I  could  not  follow  the 
movements.  It  seemed  to  me  at  first  as  if  they  had 
more  joints  in  their  fingers  than  other  human  beings, 
so  nimble  were  they;  but  this  was  not  the  case,  al- 
though the  arm  had  greater  scope  of  movement  than 
mine;  in  fact  it  seemed  to  move  in  the  shoulder  socket 
as  in  a  universal  joint,  so  freely  could  it  revolve  in  all 
directions.  Their  joints  were  really  more  padded  with 
cartilage  than  mine,  so  that  there  was  more  flexibility 
in  the  limbs  along  with  greater  firmness  and  strength. 
Their  nerves  were  also  more  magnetic  than  those  of 
other  men,  conveying  the  messages  to  and  from  the 
brain  and  will-centres  with  far  more  swiftness  and 
certitude.  Indeed,  if  I  were  to  find  any  one  point  in 
their  systems  which  most  differentiated  them  from 
European  humanity,  it  was  this  increased  and  ac- 
celerated nerve-energy.  For  a  long  time  their  rapidity 
and  ease  of  movement  and  action  bewildered  me; 
whilst  I  was  deliberating  what  was  to  be  done,  they 
had  done  all  that  was  needed.     They  had  instruments 


282  Limanora 

for  measuring  the  flash  of  thought  from  brain  to  hand 
and  of  sensation  from  hand  to  brain,  and  when  tested 
at  first,  the  swiftness  of  the  message  along  my  nerves 
was  not  one  tithe  of  theirs,  but  when  my  education  had 
somewhat  advanced,  this  disparity  was  reduced  by 
half.  This  advance  was  accomplished,  not  merely  by 
practice,  but  by  variety  of  diet  and  medication,  and 
by  living  in  a  more  magnetic  atmosphere.  I  was  often 
borne  aloft  into  the  purer  air  that  fringes  the  envelope 
of  our  earth,  and  there,  half-asleep,  I  drew  into  my  sys- 
tem the  electric  elements  which  went  to  the  quickening 
of  my  nerves.  Down  in  the  island  everything  that 
would  excite  me  was  avoided;  the  muscles  and  the 
other  tissues  of  the  body  were  exercised,  whilst  the 
nerves  completely  rested.  Then  they  would  be  given 
gentle  exercise  of  their  own,  to  strengthen  and  make 
them  supple,  without  unduly  stimulating  them.  I  soon 
began  to  feel  the  difference  in  the  increasing  nimble- 
ness  of  my  limbs  and  could  move  with  more  celerity 
and  ease.  The  fingers  were  quicker  to  follow  the  eye. 
I  grew  what  my  old  companions  would  have  thought 
unerring  in  my  aim  and  would  have  made  a  deadly 
shot  with  bullet  or  arrow  in  the  wars  of  my  native 
country.  What  was  still  better,  the  tips  of  my  fingers 
came  to  be  powerfully  magnetic  both  in  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  electricity  in  any  body  they  touched,  and 
in  actively  producing  magnetic  currents.  I  was  even 
able  to  cause  a  faint  flash  in  the  darkness  by  concen- 
trating my  will-power  in  my  fingers,  and  waving  them 
in  the  air. 


POSTSCRIPT  TO   LIMANORA 


WHEN  he  had  reached  this  point  in  his  narrative, 
a  striking  instance  of  the  result  of  his  educa- 
tion occurred.  It  was  getting  towards  the  end  of  win- 
ter, and  we  who  had  our  rules  of  thumb  for  the  changes 
in  the  weather  were  looking  for  the  equinoctial  gales 
that  harbinger  the  approach  of  spring.  The  days  were 
lengthening,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  was  growing  clear 
and  strong  upon  our  high-perched  huts. 

We  had  noticed  a  certain  distraction  in  his  manner, 
an  absence  of  thought  or  of  consciousness,  when  he 
was  describing  the  development  of  his  magnetic  sense. 
And  when  he  ceased  for  the  night  he  could  not  rest 
but  paced  uneasily  along  our  platform  of  cliff  which 
overlooked  the  waters  of  the  sound.  The  moon  had 
begun  to  wane,  and  our  weather  lore  bade  us  look  out 
for  storms  at  the  beginning  of  her  next  phase.  I  could 
not  go  myself  to  rest  for  thinking  of  his  strange  nar- 
rative and  the  wonderful  people  he  had  sojourned 
amongst.  I  sat  up  many  hours  writing  out  what  I 
could  remember  of  his  conversations  and  descriptions 
while  it  was  still  clear  in  my  mind. 

Some  time  after  midnight  I  looked  out  and  saw  the 
silver  moonshine  on  the  still  waters  below  and  was  at- 
tracted by  the  beauty  of  the  scene.  I  had  thought 
that  he  had  retired,  but  I  had  scarcely  seated  myself 

2S3 


284  Limanora 

on  a  projecting  boss  of  rock  that  took  in  one  of  our 
widest  views,  when  his  musical  voice  startled  me  out 
of  my  reverie. 

We  fell  into  such  sympathetic  intercourse  as  the 
beauty  of  night  often  stimulates  in  two  sleepless  spirits 
meeting  under  the  moon.  He  told  me  that  the  earth 
was  then  tremulous  with  suppressed  passion,  and  that 
far  off  in  his  old  home  in  the  Pacific  her  heart  was 
about  to  break.  He  felt  waves  of  magnetic  feeling 
pass  through  him,  and  they  drew  his  soul  back  to 
Iyimanora.  He  knew  that  the  spirits  he  loved  there 
were  yearning  for  him.  For  his  heart  quivered  and 
throbbed  with  full  memories  of  all  he  had  known  and 
experienced.  There  was  anguish  in  the  magnetic  un- 
dulance  vibrating  across  his  being.  It  was  not  merely 
that  a  great  storm  was  approaching;  that  he  had 
known  for  some  days.  There  were  human  pulsations 
in  the  ether  which  beat  like  an  ocean  upon  his  brain. 
That  was  why  he  could  not  rest.  If  only  he  could 
have  his  wings  again,  he  would  try  to  respond  to  the 
call.  But  it  was  useless  with  the  recrudescence  of  his 
muddier  humanity  to  attempt  return  by  such  aerial 
means.  I  offered  to  go  with  him  on  the  morrow  to  the 
nearest  city  and  charter  a  ship  to  carry  us  to  his  former 
home.  But  he  would  not  listen  to  my  proposal,  and 
bade  me  seek  rest  and  sleep. 

I  began  to  feel  that  I  was  intruding  on  the  privacy 
of  an  agonised  soul,  and  I  bade  him  good- night  and  left 
him  to  his  own  thoughts. 

The  exhaustion  of  overcharged  emotion  soon  let  me 
drift  into  troubled  unconsciousness.  Dream  followed 
dream  like  hurrying  clouds  over  the  moon.  At  dawn 
I  woke  in  nightmare.  The  hut  was  shaking.  I  thought 
that  I  was  still  dreaming.     But  the  swish  of  the  rain 


Postscript  to  Limanora 


285 


and  the  lashing  of  the  tree-branches  on  the  roof  soon 
made  me  understand.  The  calm  of  the  night  before 
had  given  way  to  tempest;  and  the  earth  was  suffering 
rupture. 

I  remembered  the  prediction  of  our  guest,  and  rushed 
to  his  hut.  He  was  not  there;  nor  could  I  conjecture 
whither  he  had  gone.  I  thought  he  had  taken  shelter 
in  the  bush  from  the  storm.  Three  days  it  lasted,  and 
then  we  were  able  to  go  out  and  search  the  drenched 
forest.  We  followed  up  every  track  that  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  take.  We  went  to  all  his  favourite 
haunts.  But  no  trace  could  we  find  of  him,  though 
days  were  spent  on  the  search.  Then  we  forced  our 
way  through  the  dense  undergrowth  in  several  direc- 
tions we  had  never  seen  him  take;  and  at  last  we  came 
upon  a  yawning  chasm,  which  had  every  appearance 
of  being  newly  opened.  The  precipitous  side  of  the 
mountain  had  split,  and  a  vast  landslip  had  swept 
down  it  and  filled  the  bottom  of  the  gulf.  We  could 
not  resist  the  natural  conclusion;  this  was  the  tomb  of 
our  guest.  After  all  his  wanderings  he  had  found 
appropriate  resting-place.  The  earth  he  knew  so  well 
had  taken  him  to  her  bosom. 


BOOK  II 

The   Limanorans 
The   Inner  Life  of  a  Self-Selected   People 


287 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  pAQE 

Preface 291 

Glossary 295 

I.— Discoveries 299 

II  —An  Accident 339 

III.— Death ,54 

IV.— An  Epidemic 3g2 

V.— Literature 407 

VI.— Inspiration 4jo 

VII.— Pioneering 4^6 

VIII.— Another  Threat 487 

IX.— POLITY r07 

X.— The  Manora  and  the  Imanora  ....  538 

XI.— Ethics 554 

XII. — A  Warning 629 

XIII.— Religion 654 

XIV.— The  Last  Flight 694 

Epilogue 707 


289 


PREFACE 


LATE  in  the  autumn,  when  the  memory  of  the 
stranger  who  had  told  us  so  many  wonderful 
things  had  begun  to  lose  its  sharpness  and  we  had 
almost  ceased  to  talk  of  him,  we  were  startled  by  his 
re-appearance. 

We  were  in  our  tunnels,  taking  advantage  of  the  dry 
weather  to  get  piles  of  our  wash  dirt  out  ready  for  sluic- 
ing in  the  wet  season,  and  were  working  till  nightfall. 
On  a  still,  fair  evening,  which  reminded  me  of  the  night 
he  vanished,  we  were  returning  jaded  from  our  long 
work  and  had  just  issued  from  the  belt  of  bush  that 
fringed  our  clearing  when  the  moon  rose  above  the 
peaks  on  the  other  side  of  the  fiord  and  flashed  a  shuttle 
of  gold  across  the  waters.  Raising  our  eyes  to  our 
huts,  we  stopped  thunderstruck.  Was  that  but  a  lunar 
effect  on  the  throne-like  cliff  in  front  of  them?  It 
could  not  be  a  spirit;  we  had  never  heard  of  ghosts  in 
these  new  lands,  nor  could  the  belief  in  them  seize  hold 
of  minds  so  accustomed  as  ours  were  to  deal  with  the 
rougher  and  more  material  elements  of  nature.  We 
shook  off  our  trance,  and  stepped  forward.  The  sound 
of  our  footsteps  made  the  figure  move  and  as  he  turned 
in  the  moonlight  we  recognised  our  lost  friend  (his 
apparition,  we  first  supposed).  But  he  rose  with  his 
old  quiet  and  dignified  salute  of  welcome,  and  joining 

291 


292  Limanora 

us  as  we  sat  at  our  evening  meal,  we  talked  as  if  he 
had  parted  with  us  only  that  morning.  We  had  not 
the  hardihood  to  ask  him  what  had  become  of  him 
these  long  months.  But  I  noticed  that  he  had  more 
of  his  old  semi-transparency  of  tissue  and  ethereality  of 
hue,  and  in  his  eyes,  as  he  ceased  from  talking,  there 
was  a  baffled  look  I  had  never  seen  before  in  them. 
He  would  lapse  more  frequently  into  deep  reverie.  He 
seemed  to  have  gone  through  a  lifetime  of  effort  and 
suffering,  and  his  spirit  was,  I  could  see,  weary  and 
sore  within  him. 

He  shrank  at  first  from  all  reference  to  his  life  within 
the  circle  of  mist  out  on  the  Pacific.  It  seemed  now 
to  be  a  painful  memory.  There  was  a  pathos  in  his 
tone  as  he  spoke  far  keener  than  I  had  noted  in  it  be- 
fore. But  gradually  I  drew  him  into  reminiscence  of 
it  when  we  were  alone  in  the  bush,  and  he  seemed  after 
a  time  to  find  consolation  in  thinking  and  speaking 
about  it,  especially  when  he  talked  of  the  spiritual  side 
of  the  civilisation  in  the  midst  of  which  he  had  lived 
for  so  many  years. 

In  the  long  nights  of  that  last  winter  he  resumed  his 
narrative  again.  He  seemed  to  have  difficulty  in  find- 
ing English  expression  for  what  he  had  to  tell,  but  I 
encouraged  him  in  our  wanderings  around  the  fiord  to 
repeat  and  interpret  and  explain  what  he  had  told 
us.  Gradually  the  narrative  found  a  more  intelligible 
language,  and  I  was  able  to  jot  down  notes  that  I 
understood.  I  have  done  my  best  to  throw  them  to- 
gether into  the  form  that  they  ultimately  found  in  his 
story  as  he  told  it  to  us  sitting  together  in  our  hut. 
But  I  am  still  puzzled  and  sometimes  confused  by  many 
of  the  ideas  and  feel  that  they  have  baffled  my  best 
skill  to  put  them  into  our  tongue.     Some  of  his  der 


Preface 


293 


scriptions  awakened  in  us  a  sense  of  incredulity,  and 
others  shook  our  old  world  of  beliefs  to  its  foundations. 
But  we  were  drawn  to  him  by  the  noble  and  ingenuous 
way  in  which  he  told  us  all;  indeed,  were  often  fasci- 
nated and  blinded  as  we  listened.  We  could  not  but 
accept  his  story  as  the  highest  truth  we  could  hear  in 
this  world,  and  yet  we  were  struck  dumb  by  its  strange- 
ness. Much  of  our  bewilderment  we  attributed  to  the 
difficult}'  of  understanding  his  strange  speech,  and 
more  to  our  own  ignorance  of  the  intricate  problems 
that  have  troubled  sages.  We  have  kept  back  this 
latter  part  of  his  story  for  a  time  in  order  that  .by  study 
and  care  we  might  make  it  more  intelligible  and  more 
suited  to  the  thoughts  of  Christendom.  But  we  have 
to  acknowledge  ourselves  still  baffled  bjT  the  impossible 
task  of  making  this  road  through  difficult  regions  plain 
and  easy,  and  so  have  resolved  to  issue  the  narrative 
with  all  its  faults  upon  it. 

Godfrey  Sweven. 


GLOSSARY 


Ailomo — The  astrobiological  families. 

Airoean — A  sensometer,  or  instrument  for  finding  the  per- 
sonal equation  of  a  man. 

Aeclirolan — Radiographic  cinematograph;  an  instrument 
combining  microscope,  camera  in  vacuo,  and  electric 
power. 

Alfarene — Oxygen  shrub. 

Ammerein — Historoscope. 

Ciralaison  —Museum  of  terrors. 

Ceevamoean — Combination  of  telescope  and  makrakoust,  or 
distance-hearer. 

Ceimolan — Earth-sensor. 

Ceirolan — Instrument  that  combines  electro-microscopy  and 
photography. 

Clirolanic — Infinitesimally  microscopic. 

Corfaleena — Vacuum-engine  car. 

Doomalona— The  hill  of  farewells. 

Duomovamoean-  -Instrument  that  interprets  the  music  of  the 
cosmos. 

ErfaeEENA — Anti-gravitation  flight-car. 

Faeeena — Ship  of  the  air. 

Farfaeeena— Electric  faleena. 

Farosan — Aroma-recorder. 

Fialume — The  valley  of  memories 

Fieammu — The  will-telegraph. 

Firla  —  The  electric  sense. 

Fireaeain — The  firlamaic  department  of  Oomalefa. 

Fireamai — The  arts  of  the  electric  sense. 

Firlamaic — Belonging  to  the  arts  of  the  firla. 

Fireaman— A  musical  instrument  that  appeals  to  the  firla. 

295 


296  Limanora 

Feoramo— The  botanical  families. 

Floronae — The  tree  of  life. 

Fraeooriiamo — The   families  of  pioneers  that  imagine   and 

represent  the  distant  future. 
Germabeee — A  tree  with    fruit  that  makes  the  muscles  and 

cartilage  more  elastic. 
Idlumian— Electric  steriliser. 

Idrolan — Observer  and  magnifier  of  electric  impulses. 
Idrounasan — Machine-reporter  of  the  thoughts  and  feelings 

and  words  of  a  council. 
Idrosan — Recorder  of  electric  impulses  and  sensations. 
Idrovamoean — Instrument  for  at  once  seeing  and  hearing  at 

great  distances. 
Iearime— Edifice  devoted  to  the  arts  of  smell,  taste,  and  sound 

combined. 
Imanora— Centennial  review  of  the  civilisation  and  its  progress. 
Imataran — The  focusser  of  history. 

Inamar — Instrument  for  splitting  up  light  into  its  constituents. 
Inasan — Recorder  of  luminous  impressions. 
Inolan — Measurer  of  light. 
IrELIUM-  Iridescent  metal  applicable  to  all  manner  of  purposes 

by  the  Limanorans. 
Labramor — Alloy   of  irelium   that  sponges  up  and    retains 

electricity. 
Labroean— Instrument  for  drawing  electricity  from  the  air 

and  the  clouds. 
Lavidroean — Camera-telescope. 

Lavoean— Revealer  of  the  inner  tissues  and  mechanism. 
LENTA — The  minutest  division  of  time  in  Limanora. 
Leomarie—  The  science  and  art  of  earth-seeing. 
LEOMO — The  families  of  earth-seers. 
Leomoran — The  earth-perforator. 

Lieamo  — The  families  that  watch  the  security  of  the  island. 
Liearan— The  storm-cone. 

Lilarie— The  science  and  art  of  island-security. 
Linamar— The  analyst  of  sounds. 
Linasan—  Recorder  and  reproducer  of  sounds. 
Linokear— Spectroscopic  analyst  and  recorder  of  vapours. 
Loomiamo— Families  of  pioneers  who  imagine  and  represent 

the  links  that  connect  the  present  with  the  distant  future. 


Glossary  297 

Loomiefa — The  theatre  of  futurition. 

Manora — Decennial  review  of  the  progress  made  by  the  people. 

Margoi, — Electric  instrument  for  blending  or  reducing  the 
strength  of  perfumes,  flavours,  and  sounds. 

MiNELEA— Edifice  for  formula-machines. 

Mirlan— Life-lamp  for  revealing  and  recording  internal  pro- 
cesses for  the  use  of  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  electric  sense. 

Molta— The  Limanoran  measure  of  infinitesimal  length. 

Monalan — Electrical  distance-analyst. 

Mornaean — Time-telescope. 

Narolea  — Dream-stimulants. 

Ooaran— Psychometer. 

Ooaromo— Psycho-physiological  families. 

Ooeoran— The  sonarchitect. 

Oolorefa — The  hall  of  sonarchitecture. 

OOMAEEFA — Halls  of  nutrition  and  medication. 

Ooroean— Instrument  for  transforming  form  and  colour  into 
melody. 

Pirakno— Machine  for  drawing  electricity  from  space. 

Piramo— The  meteorological  families. 

Rimla— The  centre  of  force. 

Salosan— The  gustagraph. 

Sarifoean— Instrument  that  interprets  for  sight,  hearing,  and 
the  electric  sense  the  graphic  records  of  the  mirlan. 

Sarmolan— Cosmic  barometer. 

Sidralan — Biometer. 

Sidraemo— Bio-chemical  families. 

Sidramo  — The  chemical  families. 

Terraeona— The  edifice  of  outlook  into  heaven  and  hell. 

Thinamar — Visualiser  of  sound. 

Tirleomoran — Electric  earth-perforator. 

TrEmolan— Electric  clock  indicating  the  changes  of  electricity 
iu  various  parts  of  the  island. 

Trevamoean— Graduated  modifier  of  sound. 

Vamoean— Makro-mikrakoust. 

Vimoean— Photo-electric  analyser. 


CHAPTER  I 


DISCOVERIES 


WHAT  I  rejoiced  over  most  of  all  was  the  growth 
of  my  sympathetic  magnetism.  Not  merely 
was  my  firla  or  electric  sense  developing  more  satis- 
factorily; but  I  was  becoming  rapidly  conscious  of  the 
impulses  of  the  race.  I  no  longer  walked  amongst  this 
refined  people  like  a  blind  man  amongst  men  who  see. 
I  began  to  feel  the  enthusiasms  that  stirred  them  as 
a  body,  like  a  wind  across  a  cornfield.  I  seemed  to 
know  whatsoever  of  public  concern  was  occurring 
without  having  it  directly  communicated  to  me.  I  re- 
membered in  the  buried  life  of  my  boyhood  and  youth, 
the  lightning-spread  of  a  new  impulse  through  an  as- 
sembly or  a  crowd;  the  most  rational  members  of  the 
mass  were  unable  to  resist  it,  even  though  it  might  be 
irrational  or  vile.  How  like  a  tornado  the  war-impulse 
bursts  through  a  nation  is  one  of  the  commonest  ob- 
servations in  the  study  of  history;  statesmen  and  kings 
and  heroes  have  to  bow  before  it,  and  are  swept  along 
with  it  in  spite  of  their  better  judgments.  And  as 
swift  and  widespread  is  the  coward-impulse  that  sends 
a  defeated  people  cowering  to  their  homes.  It  is  this 
unspoken  magnetism,  giving  vent  as  it  too  often  does 
to  the  evil  in  the  human  heart,  that  makes  the  cause  of 

299 


300  Limanora 

progress  in  even  civilised  races  so  hopeless.  Through 
its  all-leavening  power  success  inspires  and  often  con- 
secrates the  diabolic,  and  failure  damns  the  noblest  and 
most  divine. 

And  this  it  was  that  made  progress  so  easy  amongst 
the  Limanorans;  it  became  the  instrument  of  the  high- 
est elements  and  thoughts  in  them.  The  whole  weight 
of  their  humanity  was  on  the  side  of  advance,  and  it 
was  to  the  better  future  that  they  ever  gravitated. 
Everything  that  made  for  a  higher  plane  was  an  in- 
spiration to  this  people. 

This  personal  magnetism  had  been  developed  in 
them  into  a  definite  faculty  of  their  souls.  They  had 
recognised  for  many  ages  the  close  affinity  of  mass-in- 
spiration and  the  power  of  the  individual  will.  It  was 
the  same  energy  working  along  the  nerves,  and  even, 
though  with  some  dissipation,  through  the  space  inter- 
vening between  individualities.  They  had  investigated 
its  nature,  conditions,  and  methods  of  action  in  their 
exact  scientific  way,  and  had  identified  it,  as  far  at 
least  as  its  form  of  energy  was  concerned,  with  elec- 
tricity. It  was  even  less  dependent  on  material  con- 
tact than  that  universal  force.  As  they  developed  it 
in  their  frames,  they  were  able  to  send  more  and  more 
definite  impulses  through  considerable  distances.  This 
was  their  filammu  or  will-telegraph,  one  of  their  most 
remarkable  faculties,  drawn  with  deliberate  purpose  by 
the  elders  of  the  race  out  of  the  chaos  of  mere  vague 
influence  and  tendency. 

Though  making  use  of  the  active  electric  sense  as 
channel,  it  was  not  the  same  as  the  firla,  for  it  implied 
a  greater  effort  and  outwelling  of  the  whole  spirit. 
Only  exceptional  impulses  and  enthusiasms  set  it  into 
full  efficiency,  such  impulses  as  entangled  the  whole 


Discoveries  3QI 

soul  in  their  issue.  It  was  no  mere  toy  to  be  used  for 
the  amusement  of  the  passing  moment;  dormant  it 
lay,  if  ever  summoned  to  such  a  purpose.  It  was  the 
faculty  that  in  other  races  and  periods  of  history  had 
set  up  men  as  heroes  and  leaders;  not  that  these  had 
even  been  conscious  of  its  existence  in  them  when  they 
began  their  career;  success  and  gathering  enthusiasm 
in  their  followers  gave  it  strength  and  issue,  till  their 
mere  glance  seemed  to  command.  But  when  failure 
came,  and  the  glamour  or  magnetic  atmosphere  rarefied 
about  them,  their  faculty  vanished;  for  it  had  no  means 
of  communicating  its  meaning  or  power. 

In  certain  periods  of  exaltation  every  Limanoran  was 
conscious  of  the  filammu  or  will-telegraph;  he  could 
not  only  receive  but  send  emotional  impulses  through 
long  distances.  The  intervening  air  was  magnetised 
by  their  great  enthusiasm  or  sympathy,  and  became 
a  medium  for  transmitting  emotional  or  imaginative 
thought  from  mind  to  mind.  Not  yet  had  they  been 
able  to  send  a  definite  piece  of  information  by  this 
means,  unless  it  represented  the  spiritual  crisis  through 
which  the  sender  was  passing.  But  in  movements  that 
shook  the  whole  race  to  its  core,  like  Choktroo's  threat 
of  invasion,  even  those  who  were  still  in  pupillage 
seemed  to  feel  the  beginnings  of  the  faculty,  at  least 
on  its  receptive  side;  secluded  though  they  were  far 
from  the  scene  of  deliberation,  they  knew  the  magni- 
tude of  the  danger  that  threatened  the  life  of  the  com- 
monweal; the  air  seemed  to  tingle  with  it,  and  their 
embryonic  filammu  could  not  help  responding  to  the 
vibration.  Once  awakened  they  were  eager  to  bring 
out  its  latent  power,  that  they  might  feel  and  know  the 
impulses  which  sped  the  race  onwards  as  a  whole. 
They  soon  discovered  that  it  ceased  to  grow  or  even 


302  Limanora 

work  except  under  certain  conditions;  they  must  keep 
step  with  the  people,  and  fix  their  eyes  steadily  on  the 
future:  they  must  never  swerve  from  uprightness  or 
candour,  never  let  the  perfect  transparency  of  their 
lives  be  clouded. 

Such  had  been  the  conditions  of  the  development  of 
the  filammu  in  the  race.  In  fact  its  indications  had  be- 
come unmistakable  as  soon  as  candour  and  truth  had 
become  the  primary  virtues,  and  progress  the  watch- 
word. And  it  grew  as  the  ideal  of  the  nation  became 
clearer  and  more  imperative,  and  their  character  more 
uniformly  strong  and  noble.  They  also  found  that 
something  depended  on  the  physical  conditions;  the 
atmosphere  must  be  free  from  all  impurity,  and  the 
body  must  be  supremely  healthy,  whilst  the  magnetism 
of  the  will  must  have  free  course  along  the  nerves. 
As  my  nature  clarified  under  their  training  and  my 
spirit  grew  more  at  one  with  the  purpose  of  the  race,  I 
grew  more  sure  of  the  stirrings  of  the  filammu  within 
me.  At  first  its  indications  might  be  explained  by 
other  and  more  patent  causes;  I  had  been  in  an  atti- 
tude of  expectancy,  or  my  reason  had  been  following 
up  certain  trains  of  thought  from  previous  events.  But 
after  a  time  there  came  to  me  thrills  of  emotion  that 
were  out  of  the  range  of  my  immediate  surroundings 
and  thoughts.  I  followed  them  out  and  found  that 
they  originated  far  from  the  locality  in  which  I  was 
working  at  the  time. 

Once  a  sudden  tremor  passed  through  my  system  as 
of  some  great  fear;  I  had  not  been  thinking  of  any- 
thing but  the  work  before  me;  no  cloud  had  come  over 
my  sky;  no  danger  that  I  knew  of  threatened.  As  I 
was  trying  to  explain  the  emotion,  it  suddenly  passed 


Discoveries  303 

into  longing  to  see  Thyriel.  I  knew  where  she  had 
gone  that  day  and  my  work  had  almost  reached  a 
finish,  so  I  adjusted  a  faleena,  and  flew  quickly  over 
the  country  in  her  direction.  I  soon  knew  why  I  had 
come.  She  was  pinioned  by  a  huge  rock  that  had  just 
tumbled  from  Ularoma.  Happily  only  her  wings  had 
been  caught,  but  they  had  been  caught  in  such  a  way 
that  she  was  wedged  tightly  between  them  and  could 
not  free  her  arms  and  legs  nor  move  her  hands;  and 
the  boulder  was  too  large  for  her  to  heave  up  by  the 
strength  of  her  body,  even  when  magnetised  by  her 
will.  When  she  saw  this,  she  withdrew  the  magnetism 
from  the  effort,  and  turned  it  in  its  full  power  into  her 
filammu  as  she  thought  of  me.  I  was  not  long  in  dis- 
entangling her  wings  from  their  prison.  But,  before  I 
was  done,  her  family  were  beside  us;  they  too  had  ex- 
perienced the  thrill,  though  more  feebly  than  I  had 
and  at  a  greater  distance. 

Another  time  I  had  not  seen  Thyriel  for  some  days; 
we  were  both  busy  at  our  own  pursuits  in  different 
parts  of  the  island.  She,  as  I  learned  afterwards,  had 
been  set  to  account  for  a  new  and  somewhat  peculiar 
odour  that  had  recently  begun  to  accompany  the  issue 
of  vapour  from  a  distant  lava-well.  I  was  engaged  in 
timing  a  new  and  intermittent  disturbance  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  sea  off  the  eastern  shore,  and  trying  to  find 
whether  it  had  any  relationship  to  an  intermittent 
fumarole  which  had  recently  broken  out  on  the  eastern 
slope  of  Lilaroma.  I  had  kept  watch  for  several  days, 
and  could  find  no  synchronism  in  their  periods,  al- 
though I  was  convinced  that  there  was  a  close  connec- 
tion between  therii,  if  there  was  not  a  common  cause. 
I  was  feeling  baffled  and  somewhat  downcast;  when 
suddenly  there  sprang  up  in  me  a  sense  of  elation,  if  not 


304  Limanora 

of  triumph,  which  continued  for  the  rest  of  the  day,  al- 
though I  still  failed  to  discover  the  connection  between 
the  two  phenomena.  When  I  set  out  next  day  for  the 
scene  of  my  observations,  I  was  joined  by  Thyriel,  who 
explained  that  she  had  finished  her  task  the  day  before 
and  had  now  been  detailed  to  assist  me  in  mine.  I 
then  knew  the  cause  of  my  thrill  of  joy,  and  told  her 
of  it.  She  had  at  that  very  hour  not  only  discovered 
the  source  of  the  fumes  in  a  new  mineral  that  the 
leomoran  had  touched,  but  found  that  this  new  deposit 
was  extraordinarily  generative  of  electricity.  It  was 
this  that  had  made  her  heart  leap  for  joy  and  go  out 
towards  me.  She  had  longed  for  my  sympathy  in  her 
rejoicing,  and  unconsciously  her  filammu  had  energised 
in  my  direction.  Between  us  we  soon  saw  that  there 
was  a  complicated  periodicity  in  the  alternations  of  my 
two  phenomena;  it  needed  several  days'  observation 
to  catch  the  rhythm,  and  for  that  reason  I  had  been 
baffled  at  first.  Before  long  I  discovered  the  cause; 
as  soon  as  a  lava-well  farther  north  had  ceased  to  flow, 
they  also  ceased ;  it  was  the  viscous  intermittance  of  its 
stream  opening  and  then  closing  two  apertures  below 
tide-line  into  the  subterraneous  fires  that  had  regulated 
the  rhythm  of  these  new  vents;  the  break  in  the  lava- 
current,  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  tide,  and  the  rush  of  the 
breakers  had  made  it  complex.  And  the  lava  had 
finally  closed  both  before  it  had  ceased  to  flow. 

It  was  at  the  same  period  that  the  whole  race  breasted 
back  the  darkness.  There  came  at  times  in  their  his- 
tory an  age  of  exceptional  advance,  that  made  the  pre- 
ceding era  seem  almost  stationary.  Nor  had  they  yet 
been  able  to  explain  its  appearance  satisfactorily  It 
was  easy  enough  to  say  that  such  and  such  exceptional 


Discoveries  305 

men  lived  then,  and  that  they  produced  the  phe- 
nomenon. But  that  was  only  reasoning  in  a  circle; 
they  were  as  much  a  product  of  the  time  as  their  fel- 
lows ;  whence  did  they  get  the  inspiration  which  spurred 
them  on,  or  the  plastic  material  in  which  they  could 
work  ?  The}-  would  have  been  nothing  without  their 
conditions  and  circumstances.  The}'  surprised  them- 
selves with  their  powers  and  successes,  as  they  strode 
forth  into  the  primeval  darkness  and  illuminated  it. 
It  all  appeared  very  simple  when  once  accomplished. 
They  had  been  gazing  for  generations  into  the  dark- 
ness, where  now  there  was  a  blaze  of  light. 

An  imaginative  pioneering  book  had  long  ago  sug- 
gested that  the  impulse  came  from  outside  the  round  of 
the  earth.  And  one  of  the  most  brilliant  discoveries 
of  this  newest  period  of  advance  was  a  scientific  proof  of 
this  hypothesis.  The  great  development  of  the  filammu 
or  will-telegraph  had  made  it  easy,  by  localising  the 
new  thrill  of  expectation,  and  revealing  that  it  came 
from  no  terrene  source.  Out  of  what  seemed  the  pro- 
found inane  such  inspirations  issued,  and  if  they  found 
a  soil  prepared  for  them  by  long  self-denial  and  patient 
outlook  and  industrious  collection  of  materials,  they 
fertilised  the  period  into  exceptional  efflorescence  and 
fruition.  Many  an  impulse  comes  out  of  the  blue  and 
falls  unavailing  in  that  no  nation  or  race  or  period  is 
fit  to  receive  it.  The  profound  inane,  they  came  to  see, 
was  one  of  the  falsest  of  ideas;  because  no  matter  patent 
to  the  human  sight  fills  it,  the  interstellar  space  was 
believed  to  be  the  wilderness  of  the  universe,  cold, 
bleak,  inhospitable,  lifeless.  Now  it  was  felt  to  be  the 
home  of  all  supersensuous  life,  crowded  with  an  energy 
that  needed  no  stellar  matter  or  atmosphere  to  sup- 
port it,  that   never  appealed  to  any  but  the  highest 


306  Limanora 

and  latest-developed  senses  of  man.  The  Linianoran 
couriers  out  on  the  verge  of  the  earth's  atmosphere 
had  been  the  first  to  feel  this  new  flash  that  lit  up  such 
a  vast  region  of  the  infinite  darkness;  they  came  back 
inspired  with  new  resolution  and  made  the  first  of  the 
discoveries;  they  gave  a  magnetism  to  their  fellow- 
workers  in  the  same  line,  and  soon  the  leaven  spread 
through  the  whole  people.  The  fervour  of  originality 
became  the  order  of  the  day.  To  decipher  the  un- 
known handwritings  on  the  wall  of  life,  to  solve  its 
hardest  problems,  to  make  new  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries, to  push  out  into  the  darkness  that  surrounds 
the  world, — these  became  the  ambitions  of  all. 

Nor  did  the  filammu  of  any  in  the  island  fail  to  thrill 
to  the  influence.  Thyriel  felt  before  I  did  that  there 
was  something  exceptional  in  the  atmosphere.  But 
even  my  will-telegraph  seemed  to  respond.  I  longed 
to  go  out  and  conquer  the  unknown,  to  outpace  the 
slow  movements  of  human  discovery.  At  first  I  thought 
the  impulse  had  come  from  Thyriel,  and  then  from  my 
proparents  or  my  teachers.  And  so  it  was  with  every 
Linianoran;  his  first  thought  ran  to  his  closest  friend 
as  the  source  of  the  magnetic  thrill.  But  after  much 
consultation  and  report,  the  conclusion  appeared  that 
no  one  in  the  island  had  originated  the  impulse,  that 
all  in  the  air  had  felt  it  simultaneously  in  their  filam- 
mus,  and  after  them  all  down  in  the  island  had  felt  it 
simultaneously.  The  truth  gradually  forced  itself  home 
on  the  investigating  families  that  the  magnetic  vibra- 
tion had  had  its  source  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
earth;  for  they  knew  that  from  no  other  country  or 
race  upon  the  surface  of  the  globe  could  it  have  come. 

Ages  before,  they  had  abandoned  the  belief  in  what 
seemed  supra-terrene  influence  as  unscientific  and  lead- 


Discoveries  3°7 

ing  to  superstition.  Faith  had  been  in  the  past  so  often 
the  cue  and  basis  of  the  worst  of  tyrannies,  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  grossest  immoralities  and  irrationalities,  the 
impulse  to  most  retrogression.  It  had  also,  it  is  true, 
been  the  nurse  of  gentle  and  just  spirits.  But  it  made 
them  so  timid  that  they  were  afraid  to  go  forward;  it 
wound  round  the  soul  such  a  network  of  fears  and 
observances  that  its  life  was  useless  to  the  race.  As 
soon  as  the  final  purgation  of  the  people  had  been  ac- 
complished, it  was  found  that  every  citizen  ceased  to 
speak  of  faith,  or  to  use  it  as  the  basis  of  any  work  or 
practical  step.  They  did  not  thrust  it  out  by  any  pub- 
lic act,  nor  consciously  reject  it,  they  only  left  off  giv- 
ing weight  to  any  of  its  commands  or  suggestions;  not 
that  they  might  not  be  true  or  on  the  side  of  all  that 
was  best ;  but  that  it  had  so  often  discredited  its  au- 
thority by  prompting,  or  allowing  itself  to  be  used 
as  the  pretext  for,  retrogression  or  baseness.  They 
preferred  to  take  every  step  in  life  on  ground  made 
sure  by  investigation  and  proof  that  appealed  to  reason. 
And  here  they  were  again  on  the  limits  of  the  un- 
known and  vague.  This  sense  that  was  closest  to  the 
portal  of  the  soul,  their  filammu,  had  brought  them  to 
face  an  intelligence  that  came  they  knew  not  whence, 
and  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  an  infinite  darkness 
that  flashed  out  at  times  the  lightning  of  noble  impulse. 
They  were  by  no  means  unwilling  to  listen  to  its  re- 
port, but  gladly  received  it  as  a  sure  and  trustworthy 
revelation;  however  dim  the  region  into  which  it  was 
about  to  lead  them,  they  were  eager  to  follow,  if  only 
they  set  each  step  upon  solid  fact.  If  there  was  any- 
thing unverifiable  in  this  new  leading,  they  would  soon 
be  done  with  it.  It  now  became  one  of  the  duties 
of  the    astrobiological    families   to    watch    for    these 


308  Limanora 

extraterrene  vibrations  of  the  will-telegraph,  and  to 
investigate  the  circumstances  and  conditions. 

These  families  had  been  the  first  to  feel  the  new  im- 
petus to  discovery,  for  they  were  the  couriers  who 
went  out  to  the  borders  of  the  atmosphere  and  watched 
for  signs  of  energy  and  life  in  the  infinite  beyond. 
Again  and  again  had  they  brought  back  specimens  of 
microscopic  and  attenuated  life,  which  seemed  to  float 
in  interstellar  space.  Again  and  again  had  they  ana- 
lysed the  beams  of  light  shooting  through  it,  but  with- 
out much  result.  Now  they  were  to  be  rewarded  for 
their  patience.  They  had  taken  out  with  them  one  of 
the  new  faleenas  made  of  transparent  and  colourless 
irelium  like  glass;  and  as  an  experiment  they  sent  it 
up  by  means  of  electricity  far  above  themselves.  As  it 
rose  above  the  limit  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  they 
saw  all  over  its  surface  a  strange  fluorescence,  which 
grew  unearthly  in  its  beauty  and  brilliance.  Rainbow 
colours  played  through  its  texture  as  if  they  were 
threads  thrown  by  the  shuttle  of  some  hand  out  of 
heaven.  Its  wings  moved  at  lightning  pace,  and  yet 
soon  it  began  to  fall  towards  the  earth.  Again  it 
struck  upwards,  and  again  the  prismatic  weavings  gave 
it  more  brilliant  life.  They  watched  it  as  it  rose  and 
fell  between  the  denser  and  the  rarer  medium.  And 
when  finally  they  caught  it  and  brought  it  down  to 
earth,  upon  its  wings  both  within  and  without  there 
was  imprinted,  not  the  iridescent  web  that  had  been 
weaving  over  it,  but  a  hieroglyph  of  faint,  half-distin- 
guishable forms,  some  familiar,  some  strange,  inex- 
tricably mingled. 

They  investigated  the  phenomenon,  and  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  faleena,  in  the  comparative  vacuum 
which  lies  on  the  borders  of  our  atmosphere,  had  acted 


Discoveries  3°9 

with  its  electric  motors  like  the  lavolan,  one  of  their 
medical  instruments  for  the  inspection  of  the  inner 
tisues,  whilst  the  wings  acted  like  the  films  of  a  photo- 
graphic apparatus,  and  retained  a  shadowed  impress  of 
the  inner  structure  of  all  the  beings  or  forms  coming 
between  them  and  the  body  of  the  car.  A  new  world 
was  opened  up  to  them  beyond  even  their  electric  sense. 
Outside  of  the  denser  envelope  of  our  orb  the  rarefaction 
of  space  meant  no  longer  lifeless  desolation  traversed 
only  by  beams  of  light,  electric  impulses  from  other 
worlds,  and  the  flight  of  occasional  meteors.  Now 
they  knew  that  there  were  ethereal  beings  living  in  in- 
finite space,  and  that  their  inner  structure  differed  in 
density  from  their  enveloping  material.  Some  of  this 
life  was  manifestly  minute  and  attenuated,  unsuited  to 
the  medium  in  which  it  floated,  waiting  for  some  fit  orb 
to  laud  on.  But  under  their  powerful  clirolans  it  was  as 
clear  that  there  were  highly  developed  organisms  fitted 
to  this  element  in  which  they  swam,  organisms  prob- 
ably higher  than  any  to  be  found  on  the  earth,  yet  too 
ethereal  and  shadowy  to  touch  any  of  even  the  latest- 
evolved  senses  of  the  L,imanorans. 

What  possibilities  this  glimpse  into  the  vast  unknown 
opened  up  for  them  they  shrank  for  a  time  from  im- 
agining, lest  they  should  again  enslave  themselves  to 
superstition  and  absurd  fancy.  For  astrobiology  they 
saw  at  a  glance  there  was  begun  a  new  and  lofty  career. 
Soon  would  they  modify  and  improve  the  lavolan  to  fit 
the  conditions  of  interstellar  space,  and  the  faleena,  if 
not  their  own  organs,  for  venturing  far  into  the  rarest 
ether.  And  then  what  reports,  what  pictures  of  the  in- 
visible universes  would  they  bring  before  the  eyes  and 
the  firlas  of  their  fellow-islanders!  How  would  they 
ever  have  time  to  investigate  and  classify  the  genera 


3io  Limanora 

and  species  that  inhabited  the  ether?  What  limit  was 
there  to  the  ambitions  and  ideals  they  would  be  able  to 
set  before  the  race  ? 

Another  investigation  that  followed  from  this  dis- 
covery had  as  its  object  the  nature  of  the  new  forms  of 
energy  that  evidently  filled  interstellar  space.  This 
was  the  province  of  the  families  devoted  to  astro- 
physics. They  produced  apparatus  for  isolating  each 
type  of  energy  which  seemed  to  have  full  action  only  in 
a  vacuum,  and  they  experimented  with  it  in  an  innu- 
merable variety  of  ways  so  as  to  find  out  its  character- 
istics. The  force  of  gravitation  had  been  familiar  to 
them  even  in  primitive  ages,  and  had  long  been  investi- 
gated so  as  to  reveal  many  of  the  qualities  of  its  action 
that  were  unperceived  by  ordinary  senses.  Electricity 
had  been  one  of  the  commonest  of  their  phenomena,  and 
recently  a  vast  unknown  region  had  been  opened  up  by 
them,  lying  between  the  verge  of  eye-awakening  light 
and  the  verge  of  firla-awakening  electricity  which  their 
machines  had  made  plain  even  to  untrained  senses. 
For  generations  they  had  passed  with  ease  in  their  in- 
amars  or  spectroscopes  beyond  the  bands  of  colour  that 
affected  their  eye,  and  the  unseen  rays  had  yielded  most 
of  their  secrets  to  them.  In  their  lavolans  or  vacuum- 
energy  mirrors  they  had  traced  the  characteristics  of 
the  torrents  of  energy  which  tore  away  from  the  nega- 
tive pole  of  their  batteries.  And  now  they  had  to  face 
a  new  form  of  radiant  energy,  the  product  of  these 
negative  streams  and  of  the  irelium  which  they  struck. 
Experimenting  with  it  in  their  lavolans  they  found  it 
different  from  its  parent  energy;  by  passing  through 
the  irelium  it  had  grown  indifferent  to  the  power  of 
magnetism.  This  peculiarity  enabled  them  to  investi- 
gate the  inner  nature  of  magnetism;  for  on  the  two 


Discoveries  311 

sides  of  an  ireliura  sheet  they  had  the  same  electric  rays 
acting  differently  towards  a  magnet;  on  the  one  side 
they  could  be  deflected  by  it,  on  the  other  they  went  on 
their  way  as  if  it  were  not  there.  The  difference  was 
also  used  in  producing  a  new  kind  of  electric  motor, 
governed  by  an  irelium  film  which  closed  or  opened  a 
channel  of  magnetic  influence.  A  third  useful  applica- 
tion of  the  discovery  was  a  new  irelium-covering  for 
the  head  and  the  body,  that  milked  the  east  wind  of  its 
deleterious  qualities.  And  a  fourth  was  an  apparatus 
for  finding  by  the  aid  of  a  magnet  the  stuff  of  irelium 
with  greater  certainty  in  their  lava-wells. 

But  the  discoveries  that  flowed  from  this  were  still 
more  important.  By  further  experimentation  they 
found  another  type  of  radiant  energy  that  behaved  in  a 
similar  way  towards  gravitation.  In  a  vacuum  formed 
within  a  vessel  of  an  alio}'  of  irelium  it  ceased  to  obey 
the  force  of  gravity;  but  as  soon  as  it  had  passed 
through  the  side  of  the  vessel,  it  gave  full  heed  to  the 
force.  Within  a  few  months  after  this  had  been  dis- 
covered, there  had  been  invented  a  faleena  that  fell  or 
rose  according  as  the  new  rays  were  intercepted  by  a 
film  of  the  irelium-alloy  or  were  allowed  free  passage 
in  vacuo.  The  energy  in  mass  drove  the  car  on  indif- 
ferent to  the  earth's  influence,  or  at  the  will  of  the  guide 
brought  the  erfaleena,  as  they  called  it,  gently  sloping 
downwards  at  any  angle  required  to  the  surface  of  the 
globe.  A  pioneering  book  at  once  developed  the  re- 
sults of  this  discovery  and  invention.  It  showed  how  a 
way  was  now  opened  to  other  stars.  For  this  new 
radiant  energy  was  found  to  stream  in  and  past  the 
earth's  atmosphere  in  vast  currents.  The  denser  the 
medium,  the  more  was  it  absorbed  and  lost,  so  that  in 
the  earth  and  the  atmosphere  it  seldom  or  never  mani- 


3i2  Limanora 

fested  itself.  Hence  the  long  ages  of  scientific  investi- 
gation before  it  was  discovered.  By  means  of  these 
currents,  which  evidently  set  through  space  in  definite 
directions,  they  would  be  able  to  guide  their  new  anti- 
gravitation  faleena  to  any  point  in  the  interstellar 
ether,  and  be  able  to  keep  up  the  supply  of  force  that 
would  drive  it.  And  when  they  approached  a  new 
world  they  could  by  means  of  their  new  machinery 
bring  its  force  of  gravitation  to  bear  on  the  car  and  so 
hasten  its  flight;  and  they  would  be  able  to  hover  over 
the  atmosphere  by  means  of  the  alternating  movements 
of  their  engine,  till  they  could  find  out  its  conditions, 
and  see  whether  it  would  be  safe  to  land  on  it  or  not. 
What  they  wanted  yet  was  the  evolution  of  their  phys- 
ical system  in  the  direction  of  living  in  ether  or  in 
various  atmospheres  indifferently.  It  pointed  out  to 
the  physiological  families  the  way  that  would  lead  in 
this  direction;  and  it  showed  how,  though  it  would 
take  countless  ages,  it  was  yet  within  the  scope  of 
their  humanity. 

For  their  knowledge  of  the  constitution  of  the  uni- 
verse the  discovery  of  these  two  forms  of  radiant  energy 
proved  to  be  of  great  importance.  They  were  able  to 
find  out  the  relationships  of  gravitation,  electricity,  the 
dark  rays  of  the  inamar,  the  negative  rays  of  the  lavo- 
lan,  light,  heat,  and  the  two  new  types  of  energy. 
And  by  means  of  the  similarities  and  differences  found 
to  exist  between  any  two  of  them  they  were  enabled  to 
resolve  the  molecules  of  any  element  into  their  con- 
stituent atoms,  and  thus  to  reveal  the  characteristics 
of  the  fundamental  ether.  They  felt  that  they  were  at 
last  in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  medium  which 
filled  space,  and  they  invented  an  apparatus  isolating 
the  ether  from  all  the  forms  it  enters  into,  so  that  it 


Discoveries  313 

became  manifest  under  their  magnifiers  to  several  of 
their  senses.  In  it  they  were  able  to  make  any  one  of 
the  forms  of  energy  move  and  play.  From  it  they 
were  able  to  mould  many  of  the  terrene  forms  of  latent 
energy,  and  they  hoped  to  mould  most  of  the  others 
with  which  they  were  familiar. 

One  of  the  most  immediately  practical  results  that 
came  from  the  discovery  of  these  two  modes  of  energy 
was  another  kind  of  engine,  which  almost  doubled  their 
store  of  force  in  Rimla.  The  main  form  of  it  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  radiant  energy  that  showed  indifference 
or  obedience  to  gravitation  according  as  it  played  in  a 
vacuum  or  through  an  alloy  of  irelium  into  the  air. 
The  new  rays  lifted  a  piston  in  vacuo,  and  by  an  auto- 
matic arrangement  they  passed  through  a  film  of  the 
alloy  and  then  allowed  gravitation  to  pull  them  and  the 
piston  with  them  back  into  its  first  position  ;  the  rapid 
alternations  drove  magnetic  machinery  which  produced 
and  stored  up  electricity.  Another  form  of  the  new  en- 
gine used  the  difference  between  the  conduct  the  other 
newly  discovered  radiant  energjT  displayed  towards 
magnets  when  it  played  in  a  vacuum  vessel  of  irelium, 
and  when  it  had  issued  through  the  vessel's  filmy  side. 

The  increase  and  concentration  of  force  in  their  island 
was  one  of  the  great  subordinate  aims  of  their  civilisa- 
tion. For  they  knew  that  the  greater  the  power  they 
had  command  of  the  more  rapidly  could  they  advance 
towards  higher  and  higher  goals.  Greater  force  meant 
greater  dominion  over  nature  and  her  secrets  and  laws; 
and  this  implied  accelerated  speed  in  progress.  It  had 
been  one  of  the  primitive  blunders  of  their  civilisation, 
as  it  still  was  of  all  other  civilisations,  to  imagine  that 
extended  empire  over  men  meant  a  true  development 
of  humanity;    wide   sovereignty    was   mere    artificial 


314  Limanora 

change  of  the  locality  and  application  of  the  forces  of 
mankind,  without  increasing  them;  it  was  but  a  re- 
shuffling of  the  cards  (to  use  your  similes),  with  all  the 
honours  in  one  hand  instead  of  being  distributed  over 
all;  it  was  merely  political  and  not  real.  Any  gain 
that  might  come  from  the  concentration  of  power  and 
wealth  was  wasted  on  increased  war-material  and  mili- 
tary expeditions  for  retaining  or  subduing  territories 
and  peoples,  on  futile  and  routine  administration,  and 
on  growth  of  court  splendour  and  luxury.  The  pur- 
suit of  the  sanguinary  phantom  of  power  over  other 
men  had  to  be  for  ever  abandoned  before  any  real  human 
advance  could  be  made.  Empire  over  the  powers  of 
nature  was  the  primary  condition  of  full  development 
of  human  possibilities,  and  every  tissue  of  their  won- 
derful brains  was  strained  to  its  utmost  for  the  rapid 
extension  of  this  sway.  A  new  addition  to  the  stores 
of  the  centre  of  force,  a  new  source  of  energy,  was 
therefore  ever  hailed  by  them  as  the  warranty  of  a 
leap  upward  and  onward  into  the  future. 

The  invention  of  these  new  engines,  then,  had  no 
slight  significance  as  events  in  their  history.  And  the 
assurance  of  more  and  more  rapid  progress  was  in- 
creased by  a  discovery  of  the  chemic  families  in  the 
same  direction.  They  had  used  coal  for  the  generation 
of  heat  before  they  had  left  their  primeval  home  around 
the  south  pole.  But  in  their  more  tropical  archipelago 
they  found  no  coal-beds,  the  islands  having  originated 
in  volcanic  and  coral  formation;  and  the  climate  made 
the  use  of  such  a  concentrated  fuel  unnecessary;  it  was 
warm  even  in  winter,  and  it  supplied  fruits  and  cereals 
which  needed  little  cooking.  The  forests  of  the  islands 
had  furnished  whatever  fuel  had  been  required  for 
hundreds  of  generations,  and  outside  of  L,inianora  they 


Discoveries  315 

were  still  sufficient  for  all  purposes.  But  the  centre  of 
force  had  recalled  the  great  heat  they  used  to  have 
from  coal,  and  the  Leomo,  in  their  probings  of  the 
earth,  had  ever  been  on  the  outlook  for  beds  of  the  old 
fuel.  Recently  they  had  found  thin  strata  of  it,  but  so 
deep  in  the  earth  that  it  was  of  little  value  to  them. 

But  a  discovery  by  the  Sidramo,  or  chemic  families, 
made  them  reconsider  this  decision  and  try  to  invent 
some  form  of  the  leomoran,  which  would  cut  and  send 
with  ease  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  the  coal  they  had 
found.  The  Sidramo  had  experimented  with  it  in 
various  lines.  They  had  made  the  steam  from  it  give 
power  as  they  had  seen  it  give  power  to  the  Daydream 
and  her  Broolyian  imitations.  But  so  large  a  propor- 
tion of  the  latent  energy  in  it  had  been  lost  in  the 
process  that  the}-  turned  their  researches  in  other 
directions.  Before  long  they  found  that,  when  the 
coal  was  placed  in  a  chemical  solution  containing  com- 
parative!)' common  and  cheap  elements,  electric  power 
was  largely  generated.  And  following  up  their  dis- 
covery the  Sidramo  were  soon  able  to  draw  electricity 
from  any  of  the  rocks  of  the  island.  Once  having  had 
their  attention  applied  to  such  problems,  they  made  a 
number  of  them  surrender  their  secret;  by  surround- 
ing one  common  rock,  e.  g.,  with  a  certain  solution  they 
brought  from  it  heat  alone.  But  the  discovery  most 
important  for  the  development  of  the  race  was  that 
which  brought  electric  power  directly  from  the  rocks 
and  even  from  the  earth.  For  this  increased  the  pos- 
sible store  of  force  in  Rimla  enormously.  And  there 
was  no  limit  to  what  they  might  use  there  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  civilisation. 

Within  a  few  days  of  this  discovery  the  Piramo  or 
meteorological  families  had  applied  the  lavolan  to  one 


316  Limanora 

of  their  long-unsolved  problems,  the  extraction  of  mag- 
netic power  in  large  quantities  from  the  air.  They 
had  been  already  able  to  draw  from  the  thunder-clouds 
their  electricity,  and  make  them  pass  harmless.  And 
by  means  of  personal  effort  and  the  magnetism  of  the 
body  they  were  able  when  high  up  in  the  rarer  regions 
of  the  atmosphere  to  recharge  their  little  shoulder-en- 
gines for  driving  their  wings.  But  ill  the  lower  air 
they  had  failed  to  draw  electricity  from  any  but  thun- 
der-clouds in  any  quantity.  They  based  a  new  appar- 
atus called  pirakno  on  the  lavolan  and  its  discoveries, 
and  with  this  they  were  able  to  draw  magnetism  from 
even  the  gentlest  breeze.  They  increased  its  size  and 
capacity,  and  soon  could  give  a  daily  supply  of  new 
power  to  the  centre  of  force.  Nor  did  this  deprive  the 
air  of  the  island  of  its  exhilarant  quality;  for  the  more 
they  took  from  it,  the  more  seemed  to  flow  in  from 
surrounding  space.  But,  when  the  east  wind  blew, 
they  found  the  inflow  of  magnetism  too  much  for  their 
smaller  piraknos;  only  the  larger  could  cope  with  it; 
and  then  the  store  of  power  in  Rimla  received  enormous 
additions. 

For  ages  they  had  been  testing  the  amount  of  mag- 
netism in  the  air  at  various  heights  and  temperatures 
and  various  times  of  day,  month,  and  year,  and  record- 
ing the  results  of  their  investigations.  They  were  now 
able  to  decide  from  these  and  from  their  experiences  of 
the  pirakno  that  irregular  changes  in  the  weather  were 
due  chiefly  to  magnetic  influence.  .  They  saw  that  the 
tremendous  storms  which  every  few  years  swept  the 
earth  had  their  origin  in  exceptional  inflows  of  cosmic 
magnetism.  During  the  history  of  man  since  he  had 
come  to  self-consciousness  and  to  the  habit  of  recording 
his  own  movements,  there  had  been  manv  sudden  and 


Discoveries  317 

temporary  climatic  changes,  that  had  led  to  vast  dis- 
placements of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth.  A  series  of 
severe  winters  in  the  north  and  in  the  temperate  zone 
would  strip  the  trees  and  fields  of  all  frugiferous  quali- 
ties, and  drive  the  animals  of  the  chase  away  to  the 
south  in  search  of  food.  And  the  races  of  man  had  to 
follow  them.  So  in  the  tropics  a  series  of  droughts 
would  destroy  half  the  chances  of  life,  and  exterminate 
one-third  of  the  dwellers  inland.  As  a  rule  the  agony 
there  led  to  no  displacement  of  nations,  so  passive  and 
fatalistic  are  they  by  nature  near  the  equator;  but  in 
times  when  some  new  religious  idea  had  broken  the 
spell  of  fatalism,  the  first  goad  of  starvation  drove 
hordes  to  search  for  food  in  other  zones.  Oftentimes 
there  has  been  a  simultaneity  in  the  meteorological 
severity,  partly  due  to  a  universal  influx  of  interstellar 
magnetism,  but  still  more  to  the  fact  that  the  earth  and 
the  planetary  system  to  which  it  belongs  have  swung 
into  a  region  of  space  that  is  exceptionally  barren  of  all 
life-impetus.  At  such  periods  came  those  wide-spread 
migrations  of  the  dwellers  on  the  globe  that  made  new 
eras  in  history.  It  was  one  of  those  cosmic  disturb- 
ances of  climate  that  sent  the  Arabs  out  of  their  deserts, 
a  flaming  portent  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
with  their  newly  reformed  religion,  the  creed  of  Ma- 
homet, and  at  the  same  moment  flung  the  Saxons 
against  the  northern  frontier  of  Charlemagne's  empire, 
and  the  Danes  on  the  coast  of  Britain.  So,  earlier,  in 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  the 
Huns  burst  from  the  east  like  a  torrent,  and  again  and 
again  swept  all  before  them  in  the  west,  whilst  simul- 
taneously the  Goths  broke  in  from  the  north  across  the 
boundaries  of  the  Roman  empire.  Later,  in  the  ninth 
century,  the  Danes  and  Normans  broke  away  from  the 


318  Limanora 

north  again  and  again,  and  plagued  Europe  with  their 
piratical  energy  in  the  very  period  when  the  Magyars 
were  migrating  from  the  east  to  the  west.  And  it 
was  only  the  closer  packing  of  the  continents,  and  the 
consequent  military  organisation  of  European  nations 
that  checked  these  displacements  in  later  centuries, 
though  there  were  refluxes  towards  the  east,  as  in  the 
crusades.  But  the  cosmic  meteorology  of  the  earth 
took  different  effect  in  the  same  direction,  when  plagues 
mowed  down  their  millions  of  victims  from  east  to 
west;  where  wide-spread  displacements  are  impossible, 
there  must  be  decimation  by  some  cosmic  means  in 
order  to  let  the  light  into  the  overpopulated  regions. 
Another  escape- valve  was  found  for  the  pressure  of 
those  periods  of  temporary  climatic  change,  when  the 
western  peoples  were  driven  over  the  oceans  to  find  a 
home.  Emigration  then  came  to  mean  transference 
of  masses  across  the  sea,  at  first  to  America,  where 
there  were  other  but  weaker  civilisations  to  be  over- 
come, afterwards  to  lands  and  islands  that  were  either 
empty  or  occupied  by  a  few  scattered  savages.  It  was 
their  circle  of  mist  that  saved  the  archipelago  of  Rial- 
laro  from  the  effect  of  these  vast  displacements  of  popu- 
lation. When  every  acre  of  land  on  the  earth  shall 
have  been  filled  with  its  complement,  and  human  fore- 
thought and  ingenuity  are  still  unequal  to  the  sudden 
changes  of  cosmic  meteorology,  then  famine  and  plague 
will  be  the  only  means  of  relieving  the  pressure. 

The  Iyimanorans  had  no  fear  of  such  effects  in  their 
own  island,  except  indirectly.  For  they  had  complete 
command  of  their  own  birth-rate  and  death-rate,  and 
kept  the  numbers  commensurate  with  all  the  purposes 
of  their  existence.  Climate  was  to  them  as  plastic  as 
any  material  or  force  of  nature,  and  the  unexpected  in 


Discoveries  319 

meteorology  was  gradually  becoming  unknown.  But 
they  had  a  strong  indirect  interest  in  all  inbursts  of 
the  cosmic.  For  the  peoples  of  the  other  islands,  the 
descendants  of  their  ancient  exiles,  were  as  ready  vic- 
tims as  ever  to  what  seemed  the  caprices  of  the  seasons 
and  the  years.  And  the  frustration  of  the  consequent 
movements  involving  the  interests  of  the  Limanoraus 
absorbed  more  of  their  time  and  reserve  energy  than 
they  desired.  A  violent  tornado  would  obliterate  the 
products  of  a  year  over  the  whole  archipelago,  and  the 
fear  of  starvation  would  goad  the  inhabitants  into  ex- 
peditions in  search  of  food,  sometimes  even  towards  the 
isle  of  devils.  Again,  hungry  microbes,  the  spawn  of 
some  plague-stricken  world,  would  float  into  the  earth's 
atmosphere  and  find  new  soil  on  the  islands;  and  the 
dwellers  would  die  so  quickly  that  there  was  no  time 
or  room  on  their  circles  of  earth  for  sepulture.  Into 
the  sea  the  festering  dead  would  be  thrown  by  the  thou- 
sand, each  bearing  its  myriad  germs  of  contagion;  the 
very  fish  that  fed  on  them  would  die  of  the  plague  and 
bear  its  microbes  to  every  shore;  the  currents  and  the 
winds,  if  left  to  their  own  bent,  would  sweep  down  the 
foul  nests  of  contagion  on  the  Umanorans;  and  it 
would  take  them  weeks  of  superhuman  effort  to  pre- 
vent the  bacterial  spawn  from  settling  in  their  systems, 
and  to  cleanse  the  adjacent  seas  of  all  taint.  The  effort 
to  prevent  these  disasters  often  wasted  their  store  of 
force  and  checked  their  advance.  It  seemed  to  them 
therefore  more  economical  of  their  energy  to  help  in 
dispelling  the  original  evil  or  making  it  swerve  towards 
other  oceans.  For  a  time  they  considered  it  to  the  in- 
terests of  their  progress  to  save  the  whole  archipelago 
from  the  irruptions  of  interstellar  magnetism  or  bac- 
terial life.     But  even  this  was  found  to  have  serious 


320  Limanora 

disadvantages.  Unbroken  prosperity  surcharged  the 
leaders  of  the  other  islands  with  conceit,  and  made 
them  lose  their  fear  of  the  central  isle  and  resume  their 
projects  for  its  conquest;  or  it  deluged  them  with  popu- 
lation, which,  whenever  nature  grew  economical  again, 
was  driven  to  foreign  means  for  its  sustenance,  and,  at 
times,  goaded  by  hunger,  made  in  military  wise  for  the 
isle  of  devils. 

Yet  these  alarms  and  dangers  were  more  infrequent 
and  more  easity  repelled  than  when  the  more  ambitious 
of  the  archipelago  were  driven  by  the  spur  of  famine 
and  disaster  to  incursion.  And,  though  for  a  brief 
period  the  Limanorans  allowed  an  occasional  tornado 
or  plague  to  devastate  the  islands  of  hostile  neighbours, 
they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  needed  less  of  their 
energy  to  repel  an  occasional  hive  of  enemies  im- 
pelled by  narrowing  limits  or  the  lessening  generosity 
of  nature  than  to  beat  off  vast  bodies  of  embattled  peo- 
ples frantic  with  hunger  and  reckless  of  life,  led  by  the 
keenest  skill  and  fieriest  ambition  of  the  archipelago. 
They  could  better  avoid  all  destruction  of  life  in  the 
one  case  than  in  the  other, — one  of  the  duties  of  their 
civilisation,  even  though  a  subsidiary  one. 

The  Piramo  were  thus  essential  to  the  progress  of  the 
race;  their  growing  knowledge  of  the  conditions  that 
governed  the  climate  as  well  as  the  passing  weather 
saved  in  a  day  as  much  power  as  the  use  of  such  an  in- 
strument as  the  pirakno  at  first  could  add  to  Rimla  in 
a  year.  And  the  scene  of  the  labours  of  the  Piramo 
was  every  year  more  and  more  extended  to  the  extra- 
terrene;  meteorology  became  in  its  investigatory  and 
experimental  department  more  and  more  cosmic,  and 
often  overlapped  astronomy,  astrobiology,  and  astro- 
physics, and  aided  them;  more  and  more  did  they  find 


Discoveries  321 

their  problems  questions  of  magnetism  or  electricity. 
In  the  interstellar  spaces  must  be  sought  the  sources  of 
the  greater  disturbances  of  season  and  climate  and  the 
pirakuogrew  every  year  of  more  and  more  importance, 
as  they  traced  the  magnetic  influences  around  the  earth 
back  into  the  infinite  fields  of  space. 

About  this  very  time  they  invented  an  instrument  of 
great  delicacy,  which  foretold  the  vaster  tracts  of  mag- 
netism into  which  the  earth  was  swinging,  and  meas- 
ured the  increase.  It  depended  for  its  principle  and 
basis  on  the  intimate  relationship  between  electricity 
and  light,  on  the  effect  of  magnetism  upon  light  and 
upon  electric  radiation  from  the  negative  pole  in  a 
vacuum.  They  had  noticed  for  some  time  that  the 
light  from  any  meteor  or  luminous  body  outside  the 
sphere  of  influence  of  the  earth  never  reached  the  in- 
struments of  the  observers  on  the  edge  of  the  atmos- 
phere quite  true,  and  that  the  aberration  differed  at 
different  times.  By  means  of  various  experiments  they 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  aberration  was  due  to 
magnetism  in  the  extra-terrene  spaces.  Their  new  in- 
strument, which  they  called  a  sarmolan,  they  sent  out 
into  the  ether  beyond  the  earth's  atmosphere  and  be- 
yond the  influence  of  terrestrial  magnetism;  and,  as  it 
received  beams  of  light  from  any  one  heavenly  body 
towards  which  it  had  been  directed,  it  recorded  the 
amount  of  this  body's  deflection  from  the  straight 
course.  They  preferred  to  turn  it  to  the  moon  or  to 
Venus  or  Mars;  for  then  they  were  sure  that  the  de- 
flecting masses  of  magnetism  lay  within  immediate 
range  of  the  earth.  This  sarmolan  turned  out  to  be 
for  cosmic  changes  of  climate  what  the  barometer  is  for 
daily  or  hourly  changes  of  weather.  Whenever  it  re- 
corded violent  deflection,  it  meant  that  the  earth  was 


322  Limanora 

approaching  an  exceptionally  vast  tract  of  magnetic  in- 
fluence, and  that  there  would  be  great  and  frequent  dis- 
turbances for  months,  if  not  for  years,  in  the  regularity 
of  the  earth's  seasons  and  climates,  or  at  least  of  those 
of  one  zone.  It  warned  the  Limanorans  to  get  ready 
their  piraknos  and  all  other  instruments  they  had  for 
drawing  and  imprisoning  for  their  own  use  the  elec- 
tricity from  the  atmosphere  and  the  spaces  above  it.  It 
was  in  short  their  cosmic  barometer  foretelling  changes 
in  climate  years  ahead.  It  eased  the  minds  of  the  Pi- 
ramo  and  set  free  half  their  energies  for  other  investi- 
gations, as  soon  as  it  had  proved  itself  a  true  prophet. 
Later  improvements  in  it  measured  the  distance  of  the 
supermagnetised  region  of  space  from  the  earth,  and 
thus  indicated  the  exact  year  and  sometimes  even  the 
month  and  the  day  when  the  series  of  climatic  perturb- 
ations were  likely  to  begin.  What  had  been  guess- 
work before,  made  just  before  meeting  the  phenomenon 
itself,  was  now  reduced  to  predictive  law;  and  they 
looked  forward  to  the  time  when  by  recording,  classify- 
ing, and  mapping  the  variations  and  regions  of  cosmic 
magnetism  they  would  be  able  to  get  at  the  cause  of  its 
unequal  distribution  in  interstellar  space.  Nay,  when 
they  had  charted  the  great  drifts  and  currents  of  varied 
energy  that  the  earth  encountered  as  its  universe 
swung  through  space,  they  might  have  ready  for  their 
future  voyagers  to  other  worlds  a  full  cosmography, 
which  would  instruct  them  in  the  kind  of  oceans  and 
torrents  they  would  have  to  breast,  the  types  of  energy 
they  would  have  to  accustom  their  systems  to,  and  all 
the  risks  and  dangers  they  would  have  to  meet.  And, 
when  their  kuowledge  of  the  conditions  and  regions 
and  tracks  in  the  boundless  space  they  might  have  to 
traverse  was  fairly  rounded  and  complete,  then  some 


Discoveries  323 

slight  adaptation  of  their  sarrnolan  would  be  to  them 
their  cosmic  compass. 

There  was  evidence  in  other  discoveries  too  that  this 
hope  was  not  so  Utopian  as  it  seemed  at  first,  that  at 
least  not  countless  centuries  would  pass  before  they 
might  be  able  to  fulfil  it.  One  especially,  that  of  the 
Floramo  or  botanical  families,  quickened  their  expecta- 
tion far  beyond  the  mere  flight  of  fancy.  It  was  a  new 
sublimation  of  a  vegetable  extract,  which  seemed  to 
give  their  lungs  free  play  when  there  was  little  or  no 
air  to  breathe.  They  had  used  for  ages  the  fruit  of 
what  they  called  the  floronal  or  tree  of  life  for  giving 
new  vigour  to  the  organs  and  especially  to  the  nerve- 
tissues;  they  still  continued  to  use  it,  even  though  the 
chemical  families  had  analysed  it  and  found  all  its  con- 
stituents, and  then  reproduced  a  mixture  that  had 
most  of  the  revivifying  qualities  of  the  fruit.  The  tree 
grew  only  in  marshy  districts,  and  they  had  reserved 
an  obscure  and  rarely  visited  corner  of  the  island  for  its 
culture  and  for  the  culture  of  plants  and  trees  like  it. 
There  was  another  tree  growing  only  in  the  cooler  zone 
half-way  up  the  mountain,  and  preferring  shallow  and 
poor  soil  to  root  in,  whose  fruit  gave  extreme  flexibility 
to  the  more  muscular  and  cartilaginous  tissues,  and 
especially  to  those  in  the  chest;  if  taken  inwardly  or 
through  the  pores,  muscular  exercise  became  more 
easy,  and  breathing  became  deeper  and  slower  or 
quicker  as  the  will  directed.  A  third  low  plant  or 
shrub,  which  grew  only  on  the  highest  altitudes  of 
Lilaroma,  and  had  its  roots  generally  in  the  soil  under- 
neath a  layer  of  snow,  had  been  found  recently  to  have 
in  its  tissues,  and  in  a  concentrated  form  in  its  nuts, 
great  stores  of  oxygen.  For  ages  it  had  been  consid- 
ered a  poisonous  plant,  and  avoided;  for  within  a  con- 


324  Limanora 

siderable  radius  of  it  breathing  had  always  been  more 
difficult  than  at  a  distance  from  it;  it  had  therefore 
been  eradicated  from  all  parts  of  the  cone  frequented 
by  the  L,imanorans.  It  had  no  beauty  of  form,  often 
grew  low  like  a  lichen  or  moss,  and  could  remain  under 
the  snow  for  years  without  perishing.  It  had  thus 
been  neglected  and  in  fact  seldom  observed  in  its 
growth;  whilst  its  nuts  had  been  thought  to  be  as 
poisonous  as  the  plant  itself.  But  recently  an  ava- 
lanche from  one  of  the  little-visited  slopes  of  Lilaroma 
had  uncovered  a  hollow,  in  which  one  of  the  Floramo 
had  found  a  bird,  emaciated  and  unable  to  fly,  yet  still 
alive;  and  beside  it  were  the  remains  of  a  number  of 
these  poison  plants  and  particles  of  many  of  their  nuts. 
It  had  evidently  been  imprisoned  many  weeks,  if  not 
months,  and  its  only  food  had  been  the  obscure  and 
offensive  snow-bush,  stunted,  scabrous,  and  without 
green  or  leaf. 

The  Floramo  became  deeply  interested  in  the  phe- 
nomenon, and  gathered  many  specimens  of  the  shrub 
from  the  top  of  the  mountain.  They  fed  the  bird  till 
it  became  plump,  and  then  shut  it  up  in  one  of  their 
irelium  vacuum-chambers  writh  only  the  nuts  to  peck. 
There  they  watched  it  from  day  to  day,  and  saw  that 
as  long  as  it  fed  on  the  nuts  it  continued  vigorous  and 
lively,  even  though  it  began  to  lose  its  rounded  out- 
lines again.  They  soon  closed  their  experiment,  and 
set  the  winged  creature  free  to  fly  whither  it  would, 
satisfied  that  there  could  be  only  one  logical  conclusion 
with  regard  to  the  plant.  They  saw  that  its  nature 
was  to  lay  up  stores  of  oxygen  in  all  its  tissues,  and 
they  called  it  alfarene  or  the  oxygen-shrub.  It  was 
this  treasure  in  it  that  enabled  it  to  live  so  long  be- 
neath vast  accumulations  of  snow  and  ice;  it  was  this 


Discoveries  325 

feature  of  its  life  that  made  it  when  open  to  the  air  so 
exhaust  the  oxygen  for  yards  around  it  that  men  found 
it  difficult  to  breathe  beside  it;  it  was  this  that,  when 
it  became  the  food  of  the  bird,  enabled  it  to  live  and 
breathe  so  long  away  from  the  air.  It  was  the  outcome 
of  long  ages  of  selection  up  in  those  difficult  altitudes, 
where  nothing  could  live  under  the  snow  without  this 
power  of  storing  up  oxygen.  And  its  nuts,  too  hard 
and  innutritious  except  for  hunger-driven  birds  to  at- 
tack, concentrated  round  the  seeds  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  this  oxygen-stuff;  and  by  means  of  this, 
when  underneath  the  pressure  of  the  snows  the  husk 
broke,  the  seeds  were  able  to  support  themselves  and 
develop  into  plants  away  from  the  vital  air. 

It  was  evident  that  these  alfarene  nuts  were  treasure- 
houses  of  oxygen ;  and  soon  they  were  tried  by  the 
Limanorans  themselves  when  they  flew  into  the  upper 
regions  of  the  air.  At  first  they  broke  the  nuts  into 
powder,  which  was  made  into  a  hard  but  soluble  paste: 
a  small  piece  of  this  held  in  the  mouth  till  it  melted 
enabled  them  in  their  flights  to  breathe  freely  in  rarer 
altitudes  than  they  had  ever  reached  before.  The 
Floramo  afterwards  brought  out  the  oxygen-storing 
power  of  the  shrub  more  strongly  by  careful  cultivation 
and  selection.  Within  a  few  years  they  made  of  it  a 
vigorous,  large,  and  comparatively  handsome  tree,  and 
its  nuts  grew  larger  and  more  oxygenated,  so  that  they 
became  a  necessity  for  all  flight  into  higher  atmospheres. 
More  attention  was  also  paid  to  the  floronal  or  tree  of 
life  and  to  the  germabell  or  tree  whose  fruit  produced 
elasticity  of  the  muscles  and  cartilage.  The  develop- 
ment of  all  three  in  the  direction  in  which  they  might 
be  useful  to  the  race  quickened;  the  energy  stored  up 
in  their  fruits  came  to  be  more  and  more  concentrated; 


326  Limanora 

selection  of  the  plants,  cross- fertilisation  of  them, 
special  soil  and  feed  for  their  roots,  and  special  sur- 
roundings, were  all-powerful  in  the  hands  of  the  Flor- 
amo  for  changing  plants  and  trees  to  any  purpose  tbey 
had  in  view.  They  studied  the  tissues  and  habits  of 
the  species  that  they  wished  to  adapt,  not  as  an  abstract 
and  merely  scientific  investigation,  but  as  one  of  the 
practical  problems  of  their  own  life;  they  turned  the 
clirolan  on  its  inner  and  outer  tissues,  as  they  anatom- 
ised it;  they  watched  its  inner  processes  with  the 
lavolan  as  it  grew  or  decayed ;  they  chemically  analysed 
its  sap  in  all  its  stages,  and  the  various  soils  at  its 
roots;  then  they  experimented  with  new  elements  in 
the  soil  in  the  direction  of  the  qualities  they  wished 
to  encourage;  they  tried  it  with  various  degrees  and 
hours  of  sunshine  by  day,  and  various  amounts  of 
moisture  by  night,  at  different  stages  in  its  growth;  if 
they  found  some  of  the  qualities  that  they  desired  in 
its  fruit  or  tissues  more  vigorous  in  some  other  species, 
they  fertilised  its  blossom  with  the  pollen  of  this  second 
plant,  and  from  the  seed  raised  a  new  species,  which 
would  fully  realise  their  purpose.  The  whole  of  vegetal 
nature  was  plastic  in  their  hands.  And  every  year  saw 
hundreds  of  new  species. 

The  Floramo  were  the  forerunners  of  the  Sidramo  or 
chemical  families,  and  experimented  in  materials  and 
juices  and  essences,  which  would  be  useful  to  the  race 
in  its  ever-quickening  advance.  Often  would  vegetal 
nature  reveal  a  compound  that  shortened  some  route 
through  the  future,  and  the  Sidramo  would  then  ana- 
lyse the  product,  and  find  the  secret  of  its  special 
efficiency.  The  Floramo  were  indefatigable  in  that  de- 
partment of  their  work  which  experimented  with  the 
application  of  plants  and  their  fruits  and  tissues  to  use- 


Discoveries  327 

ful  purposes,  and  every  day  saw  some  process  accel- 
erated by  the  results  of  their  labours.  In  fact  they 
classified  the  vegetal  world  not  merely  according  to  the 
structure  and  methods  of  growth  and  propagation,  but 
inainly  according  to  the  particular  utility  of  the  pro- 
ducts. The  one  classification  was  more  essential  to 
their  creation  of  new  species,  the  other  to  their  dis- 
covery of  purposes  for  which  new  species  might  be 
created.  Like  all  their  sciences,  botany  was  nothing  if 
it  was  not  creative. 

Having  discovered  the  oxygen-storing  shrub,  the 
Floramo  gave  a  new  bent  to  it,  applying  their  energies 
to  strengthening  its  vitality  and  its  vitalising  powers, 
and  to  finding  out  the  most  convenient  form  in  which 
to  use  its  treasured  energy.  Aided  by  the  Sidramo 
they  were  able  to  combine  the  juice  of  the  fruits  of  the 
floronal  and  the  germabell  with  the  paste  of  the  nut  of 
alfarene  into  minute,  to  my  eyes  almost  microscopic, 
globules,  each  of  which  would  support  one  of  their 
couriers  in  the  ether  outside  of  our  atmosphere  for  sev- 
eral hours.  At  first  the)'  lost  one  of  the  vitalising  ele- 
ments in  securing  another;  and  even  after  they  had 
been  able  to  bind  the  three  essences  together  in  one 
form,  it  gave  air  and  sustenance  for  only  a  few  minutes 
when  they  tried  it  in  a  complete  vacuum.  But  after 
experimenting  for  many  months,  they  were  able  to  con- 
centrate these  essences  under  enormous  pressure  and 
by  the  aid  of  electric  stimulus  into  a  form  which  would 
not  volatilise  except  in  the  saliva  of  the  mouth  and 
under  electric  stimulus.  They  were  also  able  to  give 
their  globules  such  electric  power  as  would  utilise  the 
streams  of  magnetic  energy  that  filled  the  ether.  Thus 
the  ether-couriers  found  them  far  more  strengthening 
and  sustaining  just  above  the  earth's  atmosphere  than 


328  Limanora 

in  it.  One  globule  lasted  several  hours  longer  in  a 
vacuum,  and  made  breathing  and  the  other  vital  func- 
tions more  easy  and  enjoyable.  Thus  was  opened  up  to 
them  by  this  discovery  a  long  vista  of  investigation. 
The  new  type  of  sustenance  and  oxygenation  was  so 
concentrated  that  the  couriers  into  the  sky  could  carry 
with  them  enough  to  serve  through  months. 

During  the  next  great  period  of  discovery  the  Sidramo 
superseded  this  use  of  alfarene  by  a  more  rapid  method  of 
concentrating  air.  As  usual  they  followed  up  the  steps 
of  the  Floramo,  and  created  what  the  botanical  families 
had  found  in  nature.  The  use  of  great  pressure  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  sustenant  globules  in  their  final 
form  suggested  the  track  they  should  take;  and  the 
immense  accumulation  of  energy  in  Rimla  and  the 
rapidly  increasing  faculty  of  concentrating  it  on  any 
point  or  purpose  gave  them  the  requisite  power. 
They  came  to  reduce  air  to  liquid,  and  finally  to  solid 
and  permanent,  form.  And,  following  up  the  lead  of 
this  discovery,  they  applied  greater  and  greater  pres- 
sures, and  were  at  last  able  to  transform  with  ease  and 
without  danger  any  element  into  gaseous,  liquid,  or 
solid  form.  They  contracted  the  slow  processes,  that 
in  terrestrial  nature  covered  myriads  of  ages,  into  a  few 
minutes  or  hours,  and  thus  again  multiplied  indefinitely 
their  vast  treasures  of  power  in  Rimla. 

A  pioneering  production,  the  book  of  elemental  trans- 
formations, foreshadowed  the  discoveries  to  which  this 
would  lead.  Ether,  it  was  shown,  would  be  trans- 
formed into  any  desired  substance,  as  soon  as  its  con- 
stituents and  formation  were  found  out.  Even  modes 
of  motion,  like  sound  and  light  and  electricity,  would, 
with  this  vast  expansion  of  the  possibility  of  compres- 
sion, and  the  growing  power  of  amalgamating  and  con- 


Discoveries  329 

centrating  forms  of  energy,  come  to  be  bottled  up  in 
liquid  or  solid  form  for  any  required  period.  A  block 
of  latent  sound  or  latent  light  or  latent  electricity 
would  be  as  common  as  a  block  of  ice.  Another  pio- 
neer, the  book  of  abbreviation  of  geological  time, 
opened  up  a  second  vista  of  power  that  the  discovery 
pointed  out.  Nature  took  geological  ages  to  perform 
most  of  her  processes;  but  in  great  passions  she  accom- 
plished as  much  in  a  few  minutes.  The  safe  imitation 
of  these  creative  and  destructive  paroxysms  was  certain 
to  be  one  of  the  conquests  of  Ljmauoran  posterity.  For 
the  actual  concentration  of  power  in  Rimla  was  as  no- 
thing compared  with  what  it  would  be  in  the  future. 
Now  the}'  were  able  to  contract  the  work  of  years  into 
minutes;  then  would  they  be  able  to  leap  in  one  mo- 
ment across  geological  ages.  Time  was  the  inertia  of 
realisation  and  creative  power.  The  whole  drift  of 
their  civilisation  was  towards  the  mastery  of  finite 
periods  of  time.  Years  were  to  them  what  minutes 
had  been  to  their  ancestry;  to  their  far  posterity  geo- 
logical ages  would  be  as  brief  as  years  were  to  them. 
Swifter  and  more  swiftly  would  they  eliminate  from 
their  creative  processes  the  reluctant  element  of  time,  and 
feel  that  they  were  pacing  in  the  footsteps  of  eternity. 
As  it  was,  they  soon  put  the  liquefaction  and  solidi- 
fication of  the  elements  to  countless  uses.  A  few  of 
these  were  the  cooling  of  their  buildings  by  concen- 
trated air,  the  use  in  the  arts  of  its  corrosive  power  and 
of  its  power  of  rendering  most  metals  easily  plastic,  its 
amalgamation  with  other  elements  into  an  explosive 
matter  so  destructive  as  to  supersede  the  use  of  the 
leomoran  in  earth-perforation,  and  the  storage  of  their 
faleenas  with  supplies  for  expeditions  that  would  take 
years  in  interstellar  space. 


33°  Limanora 

A  minor  use  to  which  they  put  alfarene  was  the  pro- 
duction of  vacuums.  They  had  long  had  mechanical 
air-pumps,  that  gave  them  the  vacuums  they  needed 
for  their  experiments.  But  they  now  found  it  much 
easier  to  enclose  one  of  these  snow-stunted  shrubs  in 
an  air-tight  vessel  of  transparent  irelium,  and  watch  it 
absorb  the  air  within  the  walls.  The  energy  formerly 
spent  on  the  making  of  air-pumps  was  saved,  and  de- 
voted to  some  other  useful  purpose. 

What  was  still  better  was  the  continual  experiment- 
ation on  the  human  system  carried  on  by  means  of 
these  so  easily  accessible  vacuums.  The  alfarene  vac- 
uum became  the  daily  plaything  of  the  Limanoran,  and 
he  took  pleasure  in  finding  out  the  needs  of  his  body  in 
it,  and  the  length  of  time  he  could  endure  the  pure 
ether.  It  was  not  long  before  they  knew  every  diffi- 
culty they  would  be  likely  to  encounter  in  crossing 
from  star  to  star.  The  minor  defects  of  the  body  were 
easily  met  after  a  few  years'  study  of  them  by  the  vari- 
ous scientific  families.     But  two  gave  them  long  pause. 

One  was  the  intense  cold  they  were  sure  to  experi- 
ence. Where  there  was  no  terrene  matter  or  moisture 
or  air  to  retain  the  solar  or  astral  heat  that  travelled 
through  space,  the  diffusion  of  the  streams  of  thermal 
energy  would  render  any  far  voyaging  from  the  earth 
impracticable.  The  experiments  to  meet  this  difficulty 
took  three  directions.  One  was  physiological, —  to 
make  the  body  capable  of  resisting  as  great  a  degree  of 
cold  as  they  would  be  likely  to  encounter;  this  attempt 
was  only  partially  successful,  and  that  by  slow  steps. 
They  brought  themselves  to  live  with  pleasure  in  any 
cold  that  could  be  found  in  or  around  the  earth;  but  it 
would  take  many  centuries,  perhaps  geological  ages,  to 
bring  endurance  up  to  the  pitch  of  interstellar  cold;  it 


Discoveries  33 1 

would  in  fact  mean  such  a  sublimation  of  their  bodies 
as  would  make  them  like  spirits.  Another  direction 
was  chemical, — to  produce  a  regular  atmosphere  round 
the  body  as  it  flew,  so  that  it  might  retain  some  of  the 
streams  of  heat  that  swept  past  it;  the  use  of  the  essence 
of  the  oxygen-plant  helped  them  in  this  direction  to 
some  extent ;  but  the  amount  of  it  that  would  be  needed 
to  keep  up  such  an  atmosphere  for  years,  concentrate  it 
as  much  as  they  liked,  meant  so  huge  a  cargo  that  none 
of  their  winged  cars  would  be  able  to  bear  it  above  the 
earth.  The  third  direction  was  physical, — to  produce 
as  much  heat  around  the  body  as  would  act  as  a  shield 
against  the  cold  of  the  ether;  this  was  the  most  success- 
ful ;  for  there  were  such  torrents  of  energy  ever  moving 
through  interstellar  space  that  it  merely  needed  its  util- 
isation to  solve  the  problem.  One  plan,  that,  when 
carefully  developed,  would  ensure  success,  was  a  mag- 
netic garment  which  would  cover  the  whole  of  the  body 
and  draw  to  it  all  the  electric  energy  within  a  large 
radius  of  it,  to  be  transformed  into  heat  by  minute  en- 
gines distributed  all  over  the  envelope.  Another  was, 
to  combine  the  mechanical  collection  of  electricity  from 
the  ether  and  the  full  development  of  the  magnetic 
powers  of  the  bod}-.  Already  they  had  been  able  to 
flash  lightnings  around  them  as  they  flew  through  the 
night;  and  it  would  need  but  small  mechanical  man- 
ipulation to  increase  this  display  and  to  turn  it  into 
heat.  Like  meteors,  they  would  blaze  across  space, 
wrapped  in  a  mantle  of  flame. 

But  this  difficulty  in  the  way  of  flight  through  the 
ether  was  but  slight  as  against  the  other  defect  that 
their  systems  had  in  common  with  all  terrene  bodies. 
They  could  develop  heat  easily  enough;  but  how  were 
thejT  to  keep  intact  and  consistent  in  a  vacuum  consti- 


33 2  Limanora 

tutions  which  had  been  developed  under  the  pressure 
of  an  atmosphere  ?  How  would  the  tissues  and  the 
organs  of  their  bodies  adjust  themselves  to  the  absence 
of  atmospheric  conditions?  As  they  rose  above  the 
clouds,  they  had  long  felt  as  if  their  limbs  and  even  the 
molecules  of  their  bodies  were  without  due  subordina- 
tion and  apt  to  assume  individual  independence,  even 
when  the  spirit  grew  boldest  and  most  concentrated  in 
its  energy.  Their  own  wings  and  faleenas  that  were 
intended  for  upper  and  rarer  altitudes  had  to  be  made 
tougher  and  more  elastic  than  for  common  flight  close 
to  the  earth.  They  had  to  make  them  at  last  in  a 
vacuum,  and  subject  them  to  all  the  conditions  that 
met  them  in  the  ether.  But  it  would  take  myriads  of 
generations,  if  not  of  geological  ages,  to  bring  their 
own  bodies  into  such  a  state  as  to  bear  vacuum  around 
them  for  years;  and  then  in  their  terrene  life  with  such 
a  new  constitution  they  would  be  unable  to  endure  so 
great  a  pressure  as  that  of  the  atmosphere  near  the 
earth.  The  only  contrivance  that  seemed  feasible  was 
a  farfaleena  enclosing  the  traveller  round,  large  enough 
to  hold  alfarene  supplies  for  the  long  voyage,  and  strong 
enough  to  stand  the  pressure  of  an  atmosphere  within 
it.  This  they  might  manage  after  some  years  of  ex- 
perimentation. 

But  enclosure  within  such  a  narrow  space  for  so  long 
a  period,  without  the  possibility  of  free  movement  into 
the  ether,  did  not  attract  them;  and  any  little  accident 
in  their  machinery  or  to  their  supplies  might  make 
their  faleena  their  tomb.  Some  other  line  must  be 
taken  by  investigation  and  invention,  if  stellar  migra- 
tion was  to  become  a  possible  and  desirable  thing. 

This  line  was  indicated  by  discoveries  of  the  Sidralmo 
or  bio-chemical  families,  and  the  Ooaromo  or  psycho- 


Discoveries  333 

physiological  families.  The  Sidralmo  had  long  been 
investigating  the  ultimate  constituents  of  living  mat- 
ter; and  again  and  again,  when  seeming  to  be  on  their 
track,  they  were  baffled  by  the  escape  of  some  element, 
and  left  with  only  the  caput  mortuum  to  analyse. 
Under  their  clirolans  too,  powerful  though  they  were, 
the  principle  of  life  showed  itself  in  many  ways  to  their 
senses,  and  yet  evaded  all  attempt  to  isolate  it.  The 
lavolan,  which  showed  the  inner  structure  of  living 
bodies  as  they  lived  and  moved,  brought  them  nearest 
of  all  to  the  veil  that  hung  over  the  secret  of  vitality. 
Plants  and  stationary  animal  organisms  allowed  them 
full  scope  for  their  investigations.  In  them  they  could 
see  the  life  ebb  and  flow,  as  death  approached  or  re- 
ceded; in  them  they  could  find  every  material  element 
entering  into  their  composition,  and  test  with  their 
varied  and  minute  meteorological  apparatus  all  the 
forms  of  energy  which  moved  them;  the}'  checked 
the  current  of  life,  and  watched  in  the  plant  or  animal 
the  elements  and  energies  that  remained  comparatively 
stable  and  those  that  deteriorated;  they  let  it  die  out, 
and  watched  the  throb  and  struggle  of  the  various  con- 
stituents and  forces  as  they  collapsed;  then,  when  it 
seemed  to  have  surrendered  all  life  or  hope  of  life,  they 
brought  it  back,  by  their  knowledge  of  its  existence,  to 
the  upward  struggle  again  and  no  feature  of  the  re- 
turn escaped  their  notice;  most  watchful  of  all  were 
they  on  that  dim  borderland  between  life  and  death, 
where  dawn  is  sunset  and  sunset  dawn.  In  every  stage 
were  they  able  to  isolate  each  strand  of  the  thread  of 
life;  yet  the  essential  secret  of  all  escaped  them.  Once 
the  organism  had  shrivelled  into  a  bundle  of  dead  fibres 
or  fallen  to  dust,  no  effort  of  theirs  could  give  it  the 
throb  of  life  again.     They  could  reproduce  every  ele- 


334  Limanora 

ment  and  tissue  and  fibre,  and  under  their  clirolans 
place  them  together  in  the  forms  of  life  with  marvel- 
lous art.  One  thing  was  still  wanting  to  make  it  all  it 
had  been.  They  could  even  mimic  the  flow  of  life 
through  it  by  means  of  their  command  over  the  sources 
of  energy;  but  the  result  was  only  mechanical;  they 
had  not  supplied  it  with  the  never-failing  spring  of 
vitality. 

At  last,  during  the  period  of  this  great  illumination 
there  was  thrown  a  beam  of  light  on  the  right  path  for 
solving  this  problem.  One  of  the  Sidralmo  was  experi- 
menting on  certain  substances  to  see  how  they  behaved 
under  the  rays  issuing  from  a  lavolan  or  revealer  of 
inner  mechanism.  They  were  chiefly  new  vegetable 
substances  the  properties  of  which  it  was  his  duty  to 
discover  and  tabulate.  He  was  also  mingling  one  or 
two  new  minerals  with  the  plant-products  in  order  to 
see  what  modification  the  blending  would  cause.  One 
metal  had  lately  been  found  issuing  from  the  deepest  of 
their  lava-wells  in  the  form  of  vapour;  when  cooled,  it 
had  assumed  a  crystalline  character,  and  acted  to  some 
extent  like  a  magnet;  yet  it  was  sensitive  to  energies 
that  an  ordinary  magnet  ignored,  as,  for  instance,  the 
passage  of  exceptional  nerve-force  through  the  human 
body.  Lightly  hung,  it  quivered  when  near  anyone 
who  happened  to  be  greatly  excited.  But  it  paid  no 
heed  to  the  normal  currents  of  energy  along  the  nerves. 
There  was  also  a  species  of  plant  recently  evolved  that 
had  shown  itself  singularly  sensitive  on  the  approach  of 
any  living  thing;  it  shrank  not  merely  from  the  touch 
of  a  hand  or  of  any  animal,  but  from  the  proximity  of 
life,  whilst  it  remained  unmoved  when  touched  by  any 
falling  leaf  or  stone.  The  experimenter  had  taken  a 
number  of   these  plants  and  made  of  them  a  basket- 


Discoveries  335 

work,  in  which  he  hung  a  piece  of  the  new  magnetic 
metal  by  a  slender  thread.  This  he  placed  above  his 
lavolan  to  see  how  the  rays  from  it  would  affect,  or  be 
affected  by,  the  new  combination  of  influences.  There 
seemed  to  be  little  or  no  effect,  but  he  continued  his 
experiment  to  make  sure.  Through  some  imperfec- 
tion in  its  walls  his  vacuum  failed;  he  tried  to  pump 
the  air  out  again,  but,  this  failing  too,  he  substituted 
an  alfareue-vacuum  which  happened  to  be  near  him. 
The  result  was  most  striking.  The  metal,  lightly 
hung  in  the  basket,  became  agitated  at  once,  and  its 
movements  grew  more  or  less  active  as  it  approached  or 
was  drawn  off  from  the  vacuum.  After  a  time  it  began 
to  show  less  sensitiveness,  and  at  last  became  almost 
quiescent,  even  though  the  vacuum  remained  efficient. 
On  examining  the  alfarene  plant  under  a  magnifier,  he 
found  a  minute  slug,  that  had  evidently  escaped  the 
notice  of  the  maker  of  the  vacuum;  this  had  been  the 
source  of  the  agitation  of  the  metal  in  the  basket  dur- 
ing its  last  spasmodic  efforts  to  hold  on  to  life;  and, 
when  death,  through  the  lack  of  air,  had  overcome  it, 
the  agitation  had  ceased.  The  plant  itself  had  by  the 
presence  of  its  life  kept  the  test  from  becoming  com- 
pletely quiescent.  The  influence  of  the  life  of  the  ex- 
perimenter himself  seemed  to  be  largely  neutralised  by 
the  surrounding  air;  it  was  only  when  he  came  very 
close  to  the  test  that  it  indicated  his  presence. 

Here  was  revealed  to  the  Sidralmo  the  path  thejT  had 
to  follow;  a  wide  vista  into  the  darkness  had  been  sud- 
denly opened.  It  was  not  long  before  the)'  had  taken 
full  advantage  of  the  discovery.  They  invented  the 
most  helpful  of  all  their  instruments,  the  sidralan  or 
biometer;  they  hung  the  combination  of  life-sensitive 
plant   and   nerve-sensitive  metal  itself  in  a  vacuum, 


336  Limanora 

directly  in  the  path  of  an  electric  current;  the  details 
of  its  mechanism  they  rapidly  improved  till  it  measured 
with  accuracy  the  degree  of  vitality  in  any  plant  or 
animal.  But  they  soon  found  that  it  was  differently 
affected  by  vegetable  and  animal  life.  The  energy  of 
the  former  moved  it  but  slightly,  and  only  in  certain 
directions;  the  latter  seemed  to  surround  it  and  agitate 
it  from  all  sides;  it  quivered  as  if  with  subdued  excite- 
ment. Yet  there  were  degrees  in  both;  some  plants 
moved  it  more  than  the  most  primitive  unicellular  ani- 
mals, although  the  movement  was  less  pervasive.  Thus 
were  they  well  on  the  way  towards  the  isolation  of  the 
life-principle  from  its  constant  concomitants. 

The  biometer  came  to  be  of  as  much  importance  to 
the  medical  superintendents  as  to  the  Sidralmo;  it 
abridged  the  labour  of  their  weekly  inspection;  for  it 
told  in  a  moment  whether  the  vitality  in  any  member 
of  the  community  had  fallen  or  risen  in  degree,  whether 
it  was  below  the  proper  average,  in  short  whether  all 
his  organs  and  tissues  would  have  to  be  minutely  ex- 
amined for  the  cause,  and  whether  his  dietary  scheme 
would  have  to  be  revised.  The  psycho-physiological 
families  found  it  of  some  use  in  their  investigations  into 
the  faculties  of  man  and  their  basis  in  his  bodily  consti- 
tution. They  found  that  the  wiser  and  more  intellec- 
tual a  personality  was,  the  more  gently  he  moved  the 
sidralan;  the  more  of  animal  vitality  he  had,  the  more 
violently  he  agitated  it  by  his  presence. 

But  the  instrument  was  too  rough  and  undiscriminat- 
ing  for  their  purposes.  It  could  not  distinguish  be- 
tween the  purely  spiritual  and  the  purely  animal  except 
in  this  loose  way.  They  tried  modifications  of  it,  but 
without  success.  It  was  the  Ailomo  or  astrobiological 
families  that  helped  them  to  take  the  right  direction. 


Discoveries  337 

They  were  constantly  bringing  down  out  of  the  stratum 
above  the  atmosphere  vessels  full  of  the  seeming  no- 
thingness that  existed  there,  in  order  to  investigate  it 
and  see  whether  it  was  mere  vacuum  or  not;  and 
though  the  contents  appealed  to  none  of  their  senses 
but  the  electric,  their  various  instruments  of  research 
revealed  different  energies  and  a  large  amount  of  life, 
besides  minute  forms  of  matter  without  life.  On  several 
occasions  they  had  noticed  that  the  contents  affected 
their  tests  differently  when  the  experimenter  was  near 
and  when  he  stood  at  a  distance.  Step  by  step  they 
separated  the  element  that  acted  thus  from  its  various 
concomitants.  And  soon  they  were  able  to  concentrate 
a  considerable  quantity  of  it  in  a  receiver  exhausted  of 
air,  and  to  precipitate  it  in  powdery  metallic  form. 

The  substance  was  handed  over  to  the  Ooaromo,  who 
saw  that  it  would  supply  the  test  they  wanted;  for  it 
was  but  slightly  sensitive  to  the  presence  of  animals, 
and  its  sensitiveness  gradually  vanished  as  the}7  tried 
it  with  lower  and  lower  species  of  animals;  whilst  it 
quivered  near  men,  less  near  young  men  and  women, 
only  slightly  near  infants,  but  with  quick  tremors  when 
near  the  older  and  wiser  Limanorans,  who  had  suffered 
and  thought  through  long  centuries.  They  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  this  residuum  was  the  essence  of 
some  element  in  the  ether  that  responded  to  the  energy 
of  the  higher  faculties,  as  the  magnet  responded  to 
electricity.  They  had  in  fact  found  at  last  a  true  test 
of  soul,  that  refinement  of  the  higher  animal  energies 
which  has  assumed  a  new  grade  in  life,  the  conscious- 
ness of  itself,  and  the  power  of  keeping  its  own  form 
and  essence  as  an  entity  for  ever  separate  from  all  other 
beings  and  things. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Ooaromo  had  made  from  it 


338  Limanora 

an  apparatus  which  would  test  the  presence  of  soul  and 
measure  its  force.  In  this  ooarau  or  psychometer  they 
were  at  last  furnished  with  an  instrument  that  would 
give  organic  unity  and  new  purpose  to  their  science. 
They  would  now  be  able  to  watch  and  measure  the 
growth  of  soul  in  the  child,  and  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
its  strength  in  youth;  and  thus  would  they  give  new 
vigour  and  life  to  the  creative  function  of  their  science. 
They  had  now  an  exact  basis  for  education ;  as  guides  of 
parents  and  propareuts  in  tuition  they  would  walk  in 
the  full  day,  where  before  they  had  groped  in  dim  twi- 
light; in  every  case  would  they  be  able  to  advise  with 
the  same  certainty  as  the  medical  elders  advised  on  the 
health  of  the  body.  For  the  mature  men  and  women 
would  they  act  as  true  father-confessors,  and  do  what 
the  priests  of  so  many  religions  pretended  to  do,  but 
did  not  do;  they  would  be  able  to  tell  everyone,  who 
desired  it,  whether  his  soul  had  advanced  or  receded  in 
power  after  any  series  of  sufferings  and  deeds,  or  any 
line  of  conduct,  and  thus  to  give  advice  as  to  what 
should  be  done  or  omitted  in  the  future.  And  when 
the  elders  had  come  near  what  had  before  seemed  the 
utmost  limit  of  life,  they  would  be  able  to  tell  them 
whether  their  nausea  of  existence  was  only  fleeting  and 
subjective,  or  whether  the  roots  of  their  soul  were 
loosening  themselves  from  the  soil  of  the  body. 


CHAPTER   II 


AN  ACCIDENT 


BUT  so  vast  an  expansion  of  science  and  the  un- 
veiling of  so  many  outlooks  into  the  future  left 
no  room  for  the  thought  of  death.  The  pace  of  life 
quickened  perceptibly,  and  the  energy  of  every  dweller 
on  the  island  was  strained  to  its  utmost  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  new  additions  to  the  force  of  the 
country  and  of  all  the  new  inventions.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  think  of  anything  but  the  tasks  in  hand.  None 
had  an  idle  thought,  none  a  leisure  moment  to  waste 
on  mere  introspection  or  dreams. 

In  fact  it  became  quite  clear  that  the  old  dream-fac- 
tory might  be  closed  for  a  time  at  least.  For  several 
generations  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Ljmanorans 
to  stimulate  invention  and  discovery  by  the  use  of 
magnetism.  When  anyone  felt  his  problem  insoluble, 
or  an  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  advance 
towards  some  practical  goal,  he  had  his  dream-con- 
sciousness awakened  and  quickened  as  he  slept.  A 
member  of  the  medical  families  would  attend  by  his 
bedside,  and  apply  a  magnetic  current  to  the  particular 
point  of  his  brain  that  controlled  the  powers  concerned 
in  his  pursuit,  and  especially  to  the  parts  which  were 
the  physical  expression  of  the  imaginative  faculties, 

339 


34°  Limanora 

And  by  day  he  would  instruct  the  thinker  as  to  what 
nutritive  or  medicated  chambers  he  should  enter  in 
order  to  draw  the  main  strength  of  his  system  towards 
the  faculties  he  needed.  Day  after  day  the  patient 
nurtured  the  parts  of  the  brain  and  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem that  would  help  him  to  the  solution;  night  after 
night  he  dreamt  out  the  terms  of  the  problem.  At  last 
either  in  day-dream  or  night-fancy  the  curtain  would  be 
raised,  and  he  would  see  the  path  to  take;  light  flashed 
in  on  him  as  if  from  another  world.  What  in  my 
buried  life  used  to  be  called  inspiration  was  cultivated, 
moulded,  and  directed  with  as  deliberate  foresight  and 
care  as  any  feature  of  the  body  or  the  character.  Nor 
were  these  dream  stimulants  ever  abused;  when  the 
purpose  had  been  served,  the  goal  reached,  at  once  the 
other  faculties  and  physical  parts  had  equal  attention; 
the  strain  was  unbent,  and  the  symmetry  and  bal- 
ance of  the  whole  system  restored.  Never  was  the 
stimulation  of  dream-consciousness  permitted  for  a 
mere  pleasure  or  whim;  the  importance  of  the  aim  to 
the  progress  of  the  race  had  to  be  proved  before  it  was 
granted;  nay  it  was  only  problems  the  solution  of 
which  would  lead  to  extraordinary  advances,  that  were 
dealt  with  by  narolla  or  dream-consciousness  stimu- 
lants. Now  the  narolla  were  entirely  abandoned;  for 
imagination  was  preternaturally  excited,  and  discovery 
and  invention  seemed  to  come  to  investigators  almost 
without  effort. 

It  was  indeed  a  period  of  accelerated  progress,  if  not 
of  precipitance,  in  the  work  of  all  families.  The  dark- 
ness around  existence  lifted  over  the  whole  horizon, 
and  demanded  redoubled  exertion,  in  order  that  the 
new  regions  should  be  mapped  before  it  fell.  The 
tissues  and  nerves  of  every  Limanoran  felt  the  stimu- 


An  Accident  341 

lus;  each  worked  with  a  will.  Still  the  necessities  of 
the  situation  almost  ran  ahead  of  their  powers.  One 
thing  became  clear,  that  they  must  have  more  workers; 
the  new  generation  would  have  to  be  more  numerous 
than  the  last.  For  the  young  had  to  be  drawn  upon  for 
active  nerve-  and  head-work  before  their  usual  time; 
and  these  would  need  more  leisure  in  the  next  stage  of 
their  life  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of  it  in  the  period 
of  growth. 

It  grew  evident  that  parents  who  had  been  excep- 
tionally successful  in  the  two  children  they  had  brought 
forth,  reared,  and  launched  full-fledged  on  the  career 
of  life  should  be  permitted  and  stimulated  to  resume 
parentage.  It  was  considered  one  of  the  highest  privi- 
leges and  honours  to  be  selected  as  parents  again  by 
the  magnetic  consciousness  of  the  nation.  There  was 
needed  no  formal  agreement  or  resolution;  the  mind  of 
the  race  was  known  without  consulting  it  openly;  and 
every  pair  felt  in  a  moment  that  they  were  selected  for 
reparentage;  they  required  no  stimulation,  no  permis- 
sion to  enter  on  the  patriotic  duty.  And  all  considered 
it  a  duty  of  the  loftiest  kind.  Passion  in  the  race 
burned  low;  no  longer  was  it  a  sting  or  goad  that  had 
to  be  mastered;  it  was  in  short  no  more  a  passion,  such 
as  the  use  of  imagination,  the  love  of  the  race,  or  the 
yearning  after  advance  had  become.  The  animal  ele- 
ment in  it  had  grown  insignificant,  and  left  it  at  the 
bidding  of  intellect  and  will.  These  tried  parents  had 
thus  no  sensuous  pleasure  to  seek  in  the  new  task  as- 
signed to  them.  They  took  it  upon  them  as  a  duty, 
and  their  chief  pleasure  lay  in  the  honour  they  had 
been  paid,  and  in  the  service  they  were  doing  to  the 
race  and  to  the  progress  of  their  humanity. 

A  second  necessity  of  the  new  position  was  earlier 


342  Limanora 

marriage  on  the  part  of  the  men  and  women  of  the 
community.  As  soon  as  bare  maturity  had  been 
reached,  pairing  now  began.  First  it  had  to  be  scien- 
tifically ascertained  that  all  the  merely  primitive 
stages  of  mankind  had  been  passed  through,  not  only 
the  prehistoric,  but  the  historical.  It  would  be  one  of 
the  greatest  of  evils  to  allow  the  privilege  of  parenting 
for  the  community  to  any  who  might  have  yet  to  go 
through  a  stage  of  individual  life  that  represented  cent- 
uries of  the  past  of  mankind.  Little  better  would  this 
be  than  stocking  their  island  with  children  from  their 
exiles.  It  was  a  question  of  testing  every  individual; 
for  some  passed  more  rapidly  through  the  life  of  their 
ancestry  than  others;  and  these  were  not  always  the 
best  as  parents  or  even  as  citizens.  Every  tissue  and 
faculty  had  to  be  tested,  after  careful  study  of  the 
records  of  the  childhood  and  youth.  No  possible  pro- 
spect or  chance  of  atavistic  taint  was  overlooked. 

The  next  duty  was  to  review  the  needs  of  the  race. 
The  tasks  and  abilities  of  every  family  were  measured, 
and  the  possible  expansions  of  these  were  estimated; 
then  new  sciences,  or  new  divisions  of  sciences,  or  new 
duties  that  would  need  the  services  of  a  family  or 
families  specially  selected  and  moulded  for  the  purpose, 
were  taken  into  the  account.  From  this  elaborate  re- 
view of  the  resources  and  needs  of  the  population  con- 
clusions were  carefully  drawn  as  to  the  number  and 
quality  of  the  children  that  were  required.  The  pro- 
blem was  easy  enough  as  far  as  mere  extensions  of  the 
existing  families  were  concerned.  But  the  creation  of 
new  types  was  a  question  that  tasked  the  abilities  of 
the  wisest  to  the  utmost.  The  special  faculties  needed 
for  the  new  science  or  art  or  duty  had  to  be  discussed 
and  decided;  and  especially  how  far  existing  faculties 


An  Accident  343 

would  have  to  be  modified  or  newly  combined.  Then 
out  of  the  various  families  those  two  had  to  be  chosen, 
a  cross  which  would  produce  the  required  modifica- 
tion or  combination.  But,  as  this  was  still  largely  of 
the  nature  of  experiment,  more  than  one  effort  was 
made  towards  each  new  type,  in  order  that,  if  one  child 
failed,  the  others  might  be  available.  But  the  wise 
creators  of  new  types  were  rapidly  getting  surer  of  their 
ground ;  their  experiments  were  growing  less  of  experi- 
ments; they  could  almost  foretell  to  a  faculty  or  tissue 
the  result  of  the  crossing  of  any  two  families.  And 
where  any  quality  was  unequal  to  the  new  duty,  first 
creative  surgery  was  called  in  to  modify  or  add  to  the 
tissue  of  that  part  of  the  brain  which  was  the  physical 
equivalent  of  the  faculty,  and  afterwards  education  with 
its  various  magnetic  and  dietary  aids  was  brought  to 
bear  on  its  development.  Yet  there  might  be  some 
chance  of  their  new  type  falling  short  of  its  purpose 
and,  to  guard  against  this,  several  individuals  of  it 
were  brought  forth  and  trained.  It  was  generally 
found  that  all  of  them  were  needed  to  carry  out  the 
duties  of  the  new  position. 

After  everything  had  been  settled  in  the  programme 
of  the  next  generation,  the  task  of  matching  began. 
Time  after  time  the  two  who  were  to  be  the  parents  of 
the  new  type  were  thrown  together  as  if  by  accident 
in  circumstances  and  surroundings  which  would  touch 
their  imaginations  and  rouse  their  enthusiasm  for  each 
other.  They  were  put  into  difficult  positions  together, 
so  that  one  might  help  to  extricate  the  other  from 
them.  Alternate  debt  and  service  wove  mutual  bonds 
around  them,  till  at  last  neither  desired  to  issue  from 
the  network  of  obligation  and  love  in  which  they  were 
caught.     The  magnetism  of  one  was  complementary  to 


344  Limanora 

that  of  the  other;  and  when  separated  they  longed  to 
see  each  other.  With  none  in  the  community  was  the 
filammu  of  either  in  such  communion  as  with  the  loved 
mate.  Thus  partly  wise  choice,  and  partly  spontaneity, 
produced  the  match.  The  lifelong  bond  could  never 
become  enslaving  for  either;  for  the  material  of  it  had 
been  selected  not  by  mere  youthful  caprice,  but  by  the 
maturest  wisdom  of  the  race,  whilst  it  was  spun  by 
the  impulse  and  will  of  the  two  friends  themselves. 
Neither  the  state  nor  either  of  the  partners  could  pos- 
sibly regret  the  friendship,  or  wish  it  dissolved.  It 
passed  as  naturally  into  marriage  as  flower  into  fruit. 

But,  whilst  the  future  was  thus  being  safeguarded, 
the  new  duties  or  expanded  duties  had  to  be  looked 
after.  Seventy-five  years  of  work  had  to  be  provided 
for  before  the  new  citizens  could  be  made  fit  for  their 
duties.  Part  of  this  was  covered  by  drawing  earlier  on 
the  powers  of  the  new  generation ;  the  youth  must  come 
out  of  their  seclusion  a  few  years  sooner  than  usual. 
But  that  was  not  sufficient.  What  way  was  there  out 
of  the  difficulty?  It  was  a  tacit  rule  of  the  community 
that  none  were  to  overstrain  their  energies;  overwork 
was  considered  as  great  a  vice  as  indolence;  for  it 
cheated  the  race  of  some  of  its  advance  by  demoralising 
the  faculties  and  tissues,  and  bringing  on  the  nausea 
of  life  earlier  than  it  should  come  by  nature.  The 
biometer  was  carefully  applied  to  every  citizen  in  order 
to  test  how  far  he  could  go  in  work  without  wasting 
his  energies.  And  after  all  had  been  assigned  addi- 
tional work  to  their  utmost  limit,  there  was  still  so 
much  unassigned.  The  only  chance  of  meeting  it  was 
the  extension  of  life.  The  elders  must  live  longer. 
Happily  every  condition  was  now  present  for  mauaging 
this.     They  had  new  foods  and  agents  for  revitalising 


An  Accident  345 

the  tissues;  they  had  new  apparatus  for  discovering  in- 
ternal defects  in  the  human  system,  and  new  methods 
of  remedying  them;  the  far  vistas  opened  up  into  the 
future  gave  a  new  purpose  to  the  life  even  of  the  most 
aged ;  the}'  longed  to  see  what  would  come  of  all  the 
expanded  invention  and  discovery;  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  new  age  fired  the  imagination  of  the  oldest.  L,ima- 
noran  life  had  another  century  added  to  it. 

In  the  midst  of  the  bustle  of  these  preparations  for 
the  future  (if  anything  the  L,imanorans  did  could  be 
called  bustle),  there  occurred  an  accident  that  smote 
them  almost  with  dismay,  and  brought  them  as  near  as 
I  had  ever  seen  them  approach  to  melancholy.  The 
additions  to  the  sources  of  the  energy  available  in 
Rimla  had  entailed  more  muscular  work  as  well  as 
more  superintendence,  and  it  was  necessary  to  assign 
more  physical  toil  to  the  now-earlier  mature  than  had 
been  customary.  Two  scions  of  the  meteorological 
families,  who  had  been  selected  for  marriage  and  par- 
entage, were  sent  to  manage  a  large  pirakno,  which 
had  been  constructed  for  drawing  the  magnetism  from 
the  air  and  the  spaces  just  beyond  the  atmosphere. 
The  great  machine  had  been  placed  on  an  isolated  spur 
of  Lilaroma,  so  that  if  ever  through  the  sudden  sweep- 
ing of  the  earth  into  a  supermagnetised  area  it  should 
become  dangerous,  it  could  easily  be  detached  from 
Rimla  and  insulated.  And  there  were  never  less  than 
two  beside  it  to  help  in  its  management. 

The  younger  men  and  women  took  the  night  watches 
in  all  the  physical  labour  that  had  to  be  undertaken. 
And  Tamarna  and  Omirlo,  as  one  of  the  youngest  and 
least  experienced  of  the  pairs  that  had  to  manage  this 
huge  pirakno,  kept  the  last  watch  of  the  night,  the 
watch  that  included  sunrise  and  was  followed  by  that 


346  Limanora 

of  two  of  the  most  mature  workers.  It  was  thought 
that,  as  every  Limanoran  would  be  awake  and  on  the 
alert  at  dawn,  help  in  any  emergency  could  easily  be 
procured.  As  it  was  well  known  that  during  that 
period  there  was  a  great  increase  of  -magnetism  in  the 
atmosphere,  provision  was  made  in  the  machine  itself 
for  so  regular  a  change;  it  was  so  arranged  that,  when 
the  sun's  rays  first  touched  it,  it  should  automatically 
increase  its  capacity  for  magnetism.  But  so  recent  had 
been  the  development  of  cosmic  magnetography  that 
the  times  and  seasons  of  the  irregular  increase  of  mag- 
netism had  not  been  tabulated  and  classified.  Had  the 
observations  been  made  for  a  long  enough  time  to  allow 
of  inferring  a  uniformity  or  law,  then  it  would  have 
been  seen  that  these  supermagnetised  spaces,  though 
they  may  have  been  entered  by  the  earth  during  the 
night,  have  little  effect  upon  her  atmosphere  till  day 
dawns;  the  excess  of  magnetism  seems  to  lie  dormant 
in  the  dark;  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  act  like  a  fuse  to 
a  mine  and  complete  the  circuit  between  extra-terrene 
space  and  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Sunrise,  in  fact,  as 
they  came  afterwards  to  see,  was  the  most  critical  time 
for  such  a  machine  as  the  pirakno. 

It  happened,  too,  that  on  this  particular  night  the 
sarmolau  or  cosmic  barometer  had  been  getting  out  of 
order;  but  its  watchers  did  not  think  it  called  for  im- 
mediate attention;  the  morning  would  be  time  enough 
to  put  it  right.  Its  indicator  thus  lay  tongue-tied  and 
misleading,  when  it  should  have  been  violently  agi- 
tated. Tamarna  and  Omirlo  had  no  warning  of  the 
approaching  magnetic  tornado.  The  hour  before  dawn 
the  pirakno  moved  as  regularly  and  quietly  as  at  that 
point  of  the  night  when  the  magnetic  tide  is  at  its 
lowest  ebb,  the  point  when  sleep  is  deepest  and  death  is 


An  Accident  347 

most  frequent.  They  had  just  seen  that  every  part 
was  moving  without  friction  and  fully  coping  with  its 
work;  and  Omirlo  felt  that  he  could  leave  his  mate  for 
a  brief  space  and  consult  the  sarmolan-watchers.  He 
had  been  gone  but  a  few  minutes  when  he  heard  a  loud 
crash  behind  him,  and  at  the  same  moment  he  noticed 
that  the  first  beams  of  the  sun  had  struck  across  the 
levels  of  the  sea.  He  turned  and  saw  a  flash  from  the 
place  where,  he  thought,  the  pirakno  stood.  Flying 
back  in  trepidation,  he  found  the  machine  as  he  had 
left  it,  but  it  had  stopped.  At  first  he  could  not  see 
Tamarna;  but  on  searching  he  saw  her  form  lying  on 
the  ground  close  to  the  pirakno,  hidden  by  one  of  its 
cranks.  He  touched  her  temples  and  left  side,  and 
saw  that  life  had  fled.  The  crank  had  come  upon  her 
as  she  lay,  and  bruised  her  body;  the  sight  of  this 
completed  his  despair;  he  felt  that  the  last  hope  of  her 
recall  had  vanished. 

Yet  he  knew  how  much  the  medical  elders  could  do, 
and  there  arose  in  his  mind  a  flicker  of  hope.  He 
wasted  no  time  on  lamentation,  for  there  moved  in  him 
the  carefully  trained  consciousness  that  all  such  aban- 
donment to  emotion  was  an  offence  against  the  progress 
of  the  race.  They  considered  that  every  occurrence  of 
life  demanded  as  much  concentration  of  energy  and 
thought  as  a  shipwreck,  or  the  incidents  of  a  battle,  or 
anything  that  we  in  the  West  would  call  an  alarming 
emergency.  As  grief  or  despair  or  fear  used  up  the 
power  that  should  be  spent  on  action,  emotion  was 
strictly  reined  in  at  such  a  moment;  the  instinct  was  to 
call  the  whole  resources  of  the  nature  to  action. 

Omirlo  braced  himself  to  the  emergency,  and  sent 
the  whole  of  the  magnetism  he  was  capable  of  into  his 
will-telegraph.     After  a  few  minutes'  exercise  of  it,  it 


348  Limanora 

seemed  to  relax,  and  he  knew  that  he  had  roused  his 
parents  to  the  danger.  Recalling  his  energies  to 
Tamarna,  he  followed  the  few  simple  rules  that  he  had 
been  taught  for  the  recovery  of  the  seeming  dead.  He 
made  her  lungs  and  heart  imitate  the  play  of  life;  he 
switched  the  magnetism  of  his  own  system  on  to  hers. 
But  after  all  his  efforts  she  lay  still  inert  when  his 
parents  arrived.  They  decided  to  carry  her  at  once  to 
the  medical  elders,  for  they  saw  that  something  excep- 
tional had  occurred;  it  was  not  a  swoon,  or  even  death 
from  the  bruise  dealt  by  the  pirakno.  So  they  took 
her  wings,  and  making  them  by  means  of  soft  leafage 
into  a  couch  for  her,  they  bore  her  through  the  air 
swiftly,  but  just  as  she  had  lain  when  found.  Tam- 
arna's  own  parents  met  them  on  the  way,  and  helped 
them  to  accelerate  their  pace  with  her;  and  within  less 
than  ten  minutes  after  the  accident  she  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  sages  in  the  mountain  hospital. 

The  general  medical  house  was  Oomalefa.  But 
there  were  two  houses  of  cure  which  approached  more 
nearly  to  what  our  hospitals  are.  One  was  far  up  the 
slopes  of  Lilaroma,  not  much  beneath  the  winter-line  of 
snow.  The  other  was  aerial  and  movable,  and  was, 
whenever  it  was  needed,  floated  upwards  to  the  margin 
of  our  atmosphere,  where  parasitic  and  microscopic  life 
was  reduced  to  unaggressive  feebleness.  In  it  were  all 
the  necessities  of  life  at  hand ;  the  temperature  was  kept 
close  to  summer  heat;  and  there  were  lines  of  communi- 
cation, so  thin  as  to  be  almost  invisible  in  the  air,  con- 
necting it  with  the  halls  of  sustenance  and  medication. 
This  hospital  was  meant  for  the  invalid  who  was  strong 
enough  to  be  moved  up  from  solid  earth;  and,  as  soon 
as  one  had  been  brought  back  far  enough  from  the 
grasp  of  death   to  bear  the  rareity  of  the  upper  air 


An  Accident  349 

where  it  merged  into  the  ether,  he  was  taken  up  in  it. 
But  Tamarna  was  first  borne  to  the  mountain  hospital, 
where  the  instruments  of  investigation  and  cure  were 
read}-.  When  she  should  have  had  all  the  ruptures  of 
her  bones  and  organs  and  tissues  set  for  mending,  and 
all  the  tissues  that  were  crushed  beyond  mending  re- 
placed by  fresh ly  manufactured  tissues,  and  when  she 
was  seen  to  hold  on  to  life  with  a  tenacious  grasp  again, 
then  would  she  be  borne  into  the  hospital  of  accelera- 
tive  healing  high  above  the  clouds. 

The  biometer  recorded  the  faint  presence  of  life;  the 
spirit  had  not  yet  escaped,  and  before  long  it  grew 
manifest  to  ordinary  eyes.  They  had  apparatus  for 
stirring  any  organ  of  the  body  into  activity;  and  with 
the  lavolan  they  soon  saw  which  of  Tamarna' s  functions 
had  been  deranged  and  had  suffered  syncope.  It  was 
her  heart  that  had  ceased  action;  the  inrush  of  mag- 
netism from  space  drawn  by  the  pirakno,  without  pro- 
vision for  storing  it  or  letting  it  pass  harmless,  had 
paralysed  some  of  the  more  important  cardiac  tissues 
and  the  circulation  was  in  many  places  clogged,  whilst 
a  large  proportion  of  the  superficial  blood-vessels  had 
been  ruptured  by  the  fall  of  the  crank  upon  the  body. 
A  European  medical  council  would  have  abandoned  the 
bruised  and  discoloured  corpse  as  fit  only  to  be  "  food 
for  worms."  But  no  member  of  the  community  could 
be  spared  in  such  a  period  of  enthusiasm  and  expan- 
sion. The  newly  discovered  agents  and  methods  were 
brought  to  bear.  Delicate  instruments  made  the  heart 
first  mimic  and  then  produce  the  true  cardiac  action. 
Currents  of  magnetism  swept  the  veins,  and  cleared  the 
routes  for  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  at  the  same  time 
stimulating  the  life-fluid.  The  livid  hue  gradually  dis- 
appeared from  the  face.     Another  instrument  gave  ac- 


JD 


o  Limanora 


tion  to  the  lungs,  first  in  mimic  and  then  in  vital  way. 
Concentrated  sustenance  was  injected  into  the  veins  and 
soon  the  breathing  grew  regular.  Yet  it  needed  hours 
of  this  recreative  work  to  bring  the  spirit  to  conscious- 
ness of  itself.  Out  of  the  depths  the  soul  seemed  to 
be  dragged  by  slow  steps  back  into  the  reluctant  body 
again.  The  psychometer  was  far  more  slow  to  give 
signs  than  the  biometer.  But,  as  soon  as  it  revealed 
the  approach  of  the  soul,  the  friends  of  Tamarna  were 
brought  near  her,  all  who  had  magnetic  affinities  with 
her,  and  especially  her  betrothed  Omirlo.  From  that 
point  the  recovery  was  astonishingly  rapid.  The  mag- 
netism of  friendship  seemed  to  draw  back  the  spirit 
from  its  desire  to  escape.  The  eyes  opened,  and  a 
look  of  intelligence  and  love  shone  through  their  vit- 
reous dulness  like  dawn  in  a  misty  sky;  recognition 
quickly  irradiated  her  whole  being,  then  faded  out, 
then  came  again,  till  at  last  the  curtain  which  hid  the 
soul  rose,  and  the  very  body  seemed  to  become  dia- 
phanous to  the  light  of  reason.  The  spirit  dwelt  again 
in  its  old  habitation. 

The  rest  was  a  matter  of  the  commonest  medical  sci- 
ence. Every  tissue  was  restored  to  its  previous  healthy 
state.  Every  fracture  and  bruise  and  scar  was  obliter- 
ated. Every  item  of  her  system  which  had  suffered 
beyond  the  possibility  of  repair  was  remade  and 
grafted  into  her  body  again.  Nursing  and  medicated 
atmospheres  under  the  wisest  medical  guidance  restored 
Tamarna  to  her  duties  and  to  Omirlo  as  efficient  and 
graceful  and  healthy  as  before  the  accident. 

In  spite  of  this  triumphant  success  of  their  medical 
science,  I  could  see  that  depression  prevailed  in  the 
community.  Not  even  what  appeared  to  me  to  be  the 
almost  supernatural   power  of  drawing  the  life  back 


An  Accident  351 

seemed  to  console  them.  For  the)'  had  often  seen  still 
more  wonderful  displays  of  medical  skill.  Men  who 
had  been  for  months  to  all  appearance  dead  were  re- 
stored to  full  vital  power,  even  when  the  microscopic 
transformers  of  dead  matter  had  begun  to  batten  on 
their  tissues.  No  body  that  still  retained  the  human 
form  was  beyond  their  skill;  the  soul  could  be  enticed 
back  after  it  had  accomplished  its  flight  from  earth,  for 
it  still  kept  its  affinities  to  its  terrene  companions, 
though  cosmic  distances  should  separate  them.  That 
was  the  most  difficult  task,  not  the  recrudescence  of 
life,  but  the  re-enticement  of  the  spirit  that  had  grown 
happy  in  its  release. 

When  I  observed  that  the  meteorological  families 
were  the  nearest  of  all  to  dejection,  even  though  they 
had  recovered  their  loved  member,  I  came  to  the  right 
conclusion.  It  was  the  accident  that  had  unmanned 
them.  That  they  should  be  taken  unawares  in  a  sphere 
they  had  mastered  preyed  on  their  minds.  For  one  of 
the  immediate  objects  of  their  science  was  to  take  com- 
mand of  their  future,  to  eliminate  the  unexpected  from 
life.  What  was  the  value  of  their  progress,  if  they  did 
not  see  more  clearly  and  farther  into  the  sphere  of  dark- 
ness that  bounded  life  like  a  horizon  ?  True,  the  cos- 
mic was  still  infinite  in  its  night  for  them,  and  in  the 
cosmic  lay  ambushed  countless  alarms.  But  they  had 
driven  their  outposts  far  into  the  twilight.  The  age 
the}'  were  in  had  seen  such  an  expansion  of  science 
that  the  veil  seemed  lifted  from  the  face  of  boundless 
night.  Their  sarmolau  pioneered  before  them  into 
space,  and  foretold  them  the  dire  catastrophes  that 
might  lie  in  wait  for  them.  And  yet  they  were  at  the 
mercy  of  accident.  What  was  the  use  of  such  an  in- 
flux of  suggestion  from  the  unknown?     What  was  their 


35 2  Limanora 

power  over  nature,  if  thus  they  allowed  the  fortuitous 
to  drift  in  upon  them  ?  They  had  not  suffered  such 
discomfiture  for  ages.  The}-  abhorred  the  thought 
that  the}*  should  again  be  the  slaves  of  mere  hazard. 

But  they  rebelled  against  even  the  appearance  of  im- 
potence, and  would  not  allow  any  mood  approaching 
despair  to  settle  on  their  spirits.  At  once  the  Piramo 
set  about  the  repair  of  their  defences  against  accident. 
The  pirakno  was  found  to  be  fused  into  one  mass  of 
metal  by  the  force  of  magnetism  which  had  gathered 
into  it  from  the  space  around.  Another,  larger  and 
more  effective,  was  produced  and  in  it  there  was  a  new 
arrangement  by  which  the  storage  was  automatically 
governed;  any  increase  in  the  magnetism  it  received 
was  at  once  provided  for;  and  if  at  any  time  the  inflow 
should  surpass  the  capacity  for  storage,  there  was  a 
governor  which  automatically  switched  the  surplusage 
into  the  sea,  or  back  again  into  the  air. 

A  sarmolan  too  was  invented  which  had  greater 
strength,  and  at  the  same  time  greater  nicety  of  ad- 
justment. It  could  be  left  in  the  space  beyond  the 
atmosphere,  untended  for  nights  together;  for  it  was 
self-recording,  and  as  long  as  its  parts  were  kept  clear 
of  extraneous  matter  or  force,  it  was  incapable  of  de- 
rangement. Not  that  it  was  to  be  left  to  itself  for  a 
moment;  even  though  it  now  regularly  telegraphed  all 
its  changes  to  Rimla  and  to  the  locality  of  the  pirakno, 
meteorological  observers  were  near  it  night  and  day  to 
watch  and  interpret  its  signals.  To  guard  against  any 
possible  assault  of  accident,  other  sarmolans  were  bal- 
looned into  space  whose  indications  were  mutually  cor- 
rective; where  one  went  astray,  the  others  would  be 
right. 

When  Tamarna  was  completely  restored  to  health 


An  Accident 


353 


and  it  was  made  certain  by  the  medical  tests  that  every 
organ  and  tissue  of  her  system  was  fit  for  its  task,  her 
marriage  with  Omirlo  was  accorded;  and  the  two  en- 
tered on  their  career  of  parentage.  Their  duties  were 
made  lighter,  in  order  that  their  energy  might  pass 
unimpaired  into  posterity.  They  still  had  their  round 
of  work,  that  their  tissues  might  not  grow  flaccid,  or 
their  life  tend  to  excessive  solitude.  But  Omirlo  did 
for  both  all  that  needed  great  exertion  of  mental  or 
physical  faculty. 


CHAPTER   III 


DEATH 


THE  accident  drew  the  two  together,  strengthening 
their  affinities  into  irrevocable  bonds.  And  now 
that  all  was  well  with  them,  their  sense  of  the  joy  of 
life  welled  through  their  whole  nature.  Those  who 
came  near  them  felt  it$jcontagion.  Yet  there  was  one 
in  their  family  who  felt  it  only  to  smile  at  it.  The 
aged  Amiralno  had  seen  so  many  centuries  fleet  past 
him  that  the  passage  of  time  with  its  triumphs  had 
grown  stale.  He  was  battling  with  this  nausea  of  life 
when  the  new  age  of  discovery  and  invention  had  come 
upon  them.  And  it  so  far  renewed  his  energy  that  he 
was  willing  to  live  through  it  and  take  his  share  in  the 
additional  duties  which  it  laid  upon  his.  generation. 
He  had  seen  the  infancy  of  the  science  over  which  he 
now  presided  pass  into  lusty  youth  and  thence  into 
manhood ;  and  was  he  to  cut  his  terrene  roots  before  he 
had  seen  its  greatest  triumphs?  Meteorology  seemed 
about  to  take  as  wide  regions  of  space  within  its  scope 
as  astronomy  bad;  it  seemed  about  to  master  secrets 
that  would  drive  mere  chance  out  of  its  calculations. 
The  curiosity  and  wonder  of  youth  were  again  stirred 
within  him.  He  longed  to  advance  with  the  new  age 
into  spheres  that  had  so  long  lain  under  the  horizon, 

354 


Death  355 

only  half-guessed  at.  Before  he  closed  his  eyes  on 
Limanora  what  wonders  might  not  yet  be  revealed  to 
them  ?  His  blood  had  tingled  with  the  thought,  and 
his  organs  were  filled  with  the  old  energy.  He  would 
resume  the  direction  of  his  science  for  many  a  year  to 
come. 

But  the  intrusion  of  accident  into  his  own  sphere  had 
palsied  his  renewed  enthusiasms.  For  a  time,  whilst 
he  was  restoring  Tamarna  to  her  old  self,  and  barring 
out  the  chance  of  accident  again,  he  was  not  conscious 
of  the  check  given  to  the  vigour  of  his  functions.  But, 
when  all  was  well  and  the  families  of  the  Piramo  were 
busy  again  at  the  expansion  of  meteorology,  he  knew 
that  the  old  nausea  had  returned  with  redoubled  force. 
The  impetus  of  the  new  age  was  beginning  to  fail;  its 
pace  had  perceptibly  slackened^  its  best  triumphs  had 
been  won;  and  it  needed  the  ignorance  of  eyes  newly 
opened  upon  the  green  earth  and  the  azure  vault  of  sky 
to  peer  into  the  darkness  with  thrilling  hope;  it  needed 
the  elasticity  of  youthful  muscles  and  tissues  to  with- 
stand the  weariness  and  despair  that  come  with  the 
truer  perspective  of  a  gigantic  future  become  a  pigmy 
past.  What  had  he  to  do  with  human  prospects,  when 
a  thousand  times  he  had  seen  them  loom  large  on  the 
horizon,  and  then  fade  into  commonplace  when  real- 
ised ?  Here  had  he  outlasted  a  dozen  generations  of 
ordinary  men,  and  shared  the  triumphs  of  a  people 
whose  progress  compared  with  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
earth  was  as  lightning  to  the  pace  of  a  snail;  and  yet, 
when  he  looked  at  all  that  they  had  done  in  these 
thousand  years,  it  was  as  nothing  in  the  shadow  of 
wThat  had  yet  to  be  done,  a  poor  hand's  breadth  beside 
the  voyage  of  light  from  a  distant  star.  Where  lay 
the  advantage  in  extending  a  life  that  had  seen  such 


356  Limanora 

humiliation  before  the  everlasting  future  ?  He  might 
spin  the  thread  of  his  life  out  for  another  thousand 
years  without  great  effort.  But  what  would  that  do  for 
his  race,  or  himself  who  had  seen  his  past,  with  all  the 
achievements  that  had  each  seemed  as  it  came  within 
the  range  of  possibility  a  marvel  surpassing  the  human, 
fade  into  a  microscopic  speck  underneath  the  sumless 
stars?  The  voices  of  his  friends,  as  they  poured  con- 
solation and  eulogy,  persuasion  and  prayer,  into  his 
ears,  sounded  now  like  the  undistinguishable  hum  of 
insects  as  sleep  comes  upon  a  man  in  the  open.  What 
would  they  not  have  meant  to  him  in  the  ambitious 
time  of  youth  ?  How  strongly  they  rang  out  to  him  at 
the  beginning  of  the  last  stage  of  enthusiasm,  when 
they  drove  out  of  him  the  love  of  going  for  ever  to 
sleep!  But,  now,  tha^  the  longing  had  come  to  him 
again,  they  sounded  idly  as  the  exultant  wail  of  gnats 
on  the  evening  air.  The  life  of  earth  was  withdrawn 
and  distant  for  him. 

And  who  could  raise  a  word  against  his  release  ?  He 
had  done  more  than  his  share  for  the  progress  of  the 
race.  He  had  watched  the  interests  of  his  science  and 
made  it  an  essential  of  all  advance.  He  had  braced  his 
energies  again  and  again  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a 
new  age,  another  march  ahead  into  the  night.  He  had 
time  after  time  molten  the  Piramo  into  a  new  unity  by 
the  magnetism  of  his  enthusiasm.  More  than  once  he 
had  extended  the  years  of  his  life  that  he  might  serve 
his  race.  And  now  he  had  skilled  men  and  women 
under  him,  who  could  do  all  that  he  had  done,  and 
more.  The  exceptional  needs  of  the  new  time  had 
found  their  attendants  mechanic  or  human.  The  strain 
it  had  put  on  the  efforts  of  the  race  was  unbent.  Why 
should  he  linger  in  a  world  grown  so  stale  to  him,  a 


Death  357 

world  that  needed  no  longer  his  guidance  or  even  his 
help  ? 

There  was  one  question  to  answer  before  the  mind  of 
the  community  was  made  up.  It  was  the  final  scientific 
question.  Was  his  vitality  great  enough  yet  to  bear 
the  strain,  were  the  impulses  of  another  new  age  to  give 
it  enthusiasm?  Was  the  soul  already  too  detached  from 
the  body  to  allow  of  the  two  being  closely  reunited  for 
another  great  effort?  The  question  was  one  for  their 
medical  science  and  psychology  to  answer.  The  sid- 
ralan  or  biometer  abridged  the  task  of  the  medical 
elders.  It  reported  a  low  pitch  of  vital  energy,  too 
feeble  to  bear  up  through  the  labours  and  watches  of 
another  period.  But  they  were  afraid  to  trust  wholly 
to  so  newly  invented  an  instrument  and  fell  back  upon 
their  old  elaborate  methods  of  testing;  they  investigated 
the  state  of  every  organ  and  tissue  of  the  aged  body  with 
lavolans,  the  heart  and  brain  with  especial  care.  And 
it  was  clear  from  their  state  that  the  spirit  could  not 
long  reside  in  them  and  function  them  with  ease.  It 
was  at  this  point  that  the  Ooaromo  came  in  to  aid  them 
with  their  instruments  for  testing  the  bond  between 
soul  and  body,  and  for  measuring  the  psychic  power 
that  still  remained  ready  to  use  the  brain  and  its  in- 
struments the  senses.  Their  older  methods  and  their 
newest  apparatus,  the  ooaran,  all  agreed  in  confirm- 
ing the  conclusion  that  the  medical  elders  had  come  to. 

For  Amiralno  himself  there  remained  one  serious 
question,  which  had  troubled  the  race  from  the  time 
that  mere  faith  had  ceased  to  rule  and  pilot  their  creed, 
and  reason  had  been  accepted  as  the  only  ultimate 
guide  of  life,  the  final  court  of  appeal  in  which  all  ques- 
tions must  be  decided.     They  could  not  trust  to  emo- 


358  Limanora 

tion  or  instinct;  for  these  were  but  hard- won  creeds  and 
habits  of  past  imperfect  ages  grown  unconscious  of  their 
origin  by  transmission  from  generation  to  generation. 
Authority  out  of  the  past,  tradition,  law  of  nature,  had 
the  same  taint  upon  them.  They  were  but  the  crude 
conclusions  of  comparatively  primitive  times,  with  the 
logic  leading  to  them  veiled  by  oblivion,  then  thrust 
upon  later  ages  as  inspiration.  All  these  dogmatic 
judges  of  the  present  and  the  future  were  but  the  shad- 
ows of  their  own  worst  and  atavistic  selves.  It  was 
only  an  illusion,  a  mirage  in  the  desert  of  the  past,  to 
trust  these  merely  subjective  impressions  as  reflections 
from  the  ultimately  real,  the  absolute.  A  people  like 
this  was  sure  to  abandon  all  such  projections  of  their 
own  dead  selves  as  steps  to  higher  than  themselves. 

Every  man  had  to  settle  for  himself  the  problems  that 
his  science  had  been  unable  to  solve,  and  that  he  must 
find  some  solution  of  in  death.  They  had  longed  and 
striven  for  absolute  certainty,  yet  every  new  age  had  to 
fall  back  upon  the  individual  consciousness  and  hope, 
which  were  wholly  on  the  side  of  belief  in  personal  im- 
mortality. They  knew  that  the  energy  in  them  could 
never  die,  whatever  form  it  might  take.  Never  had 
they  found  in  the  whole  round  of  their  investigations 
anything  like  absolute  death  or  annihilation;  every 
change  that  they  observed,  however  far  into  infinity 
they  had  searched,  was  but  a  transformation  of  energy, 
and  not  its  final  evanishment.  Matter  was  only  a  rest- 
ing-place, a  half-way  house,  of  energy.  And  even 
matter  was  a  comparative  term,  depending  on  the 
sensuous  point  of  view  of  the  observer.  What  was 
matter  to  one  generation  was  found  by  a  later  to  be 
pure  energy,  or  even  a  mass  of  life.  What  was  matter 
to  one  sense  was  to  another  nothing  but  energy.     And 


Death  359 

the  development  of  new  senses,  that  gave  them  full 
consciousness  of  some  hitherto  -  unrecognised  type  of 
energy,  saved  them  from  the  dogmatism  about  the 
future  based  upon  the  idea  that  all  types  of  energy  were 
known  to  them.  Their  wonderful  instruments  of  re- 
search revealed  to  them  worlds  of  energy  which  might 
have  lain  for  ages  undiscovered,  and  swept  out  all 
stupid  trust  in  the  omniscience  of  the  senses  or  the  in- 
stincts. They  refused  to  dogmatise  about  the  existence 
or  non-existence  of  any  type  of  energy  or  being.  Nay, 
they  preferred  to  accept  provisionally  the  existence  of 
any  form  that  their  imagination  might  sketch  out  as 
possible  and  as  consistent  with  the  laws  they  had  found 
permeating  all  the  known  universe.  Belief  was  for 
them  hope  waiting  for  realisation. 

Every  new  discovery  pointed  more  and  more  defin- 
itely to  the  greater  persistence  of  the  higher  forms  of 
energy.  What  appeals  to  the  more  primitive  and  lower 
set  of  senses  holds  to  even  its  inner  form  for  but  a  com- 
paratively brief  time.  Touch  is  the  primary  sense, 
and  all  that  it,  unaided  by  the  other  senses,  can  dis- 
cover is  apt  to  keep  changing  its  form.  Taste  and 
smell  are  simple  modifications  of  touch  and  they  report 
of  things  in  perpetual  transformation.  Hearing  and 
sight  are  the  highest  of  the  first  set  of  senses;  for  they 
respond  to  types  of  energy  that  travel  from  vast  dis- 
tances. Hearing  is  the  lower  of  the  two,  because  the 
lower  senses  are  conscious  unaided  of  the  medium  in 
which  the  energy  travels.  Sight  has  as  her  courier  an 
energy  which  bridges  infinity,  and  its  medium  no  lower 
sense  can  cognise.  Light  approaches  nearer  to  inde- 
structibility than  anything  the  original  senses  know. 
The  last-developed  of  the  senses,  the  firla,  takes  cog- 
nisance of  an  energy,  magnetism,  which  is  farthest  of 


360  Limanora 

all  from  the  need  of  a  material  medium;  whilst  the  fil- 
ammu  or  will-telegraph  brings  soul  to  soul  irrespective 
of  all  sense-cognisable  means  of  communication,  and 
proves  the  existence  of  a  medium  more  refined  than 
any  that  either  the  senses  or  the  reason  has  yet  come 
to  know.  This  medium,  doubtless  that  of  thought 
itself,  as  the  highest  and  least  material,  must  be  least 
destructible,  least  transformable,  least  unstable  in 
equilibrium  of  all  known  mediums.  Their  ooaraus 
would  soon  be  made  delicate  enough  to  measure  the 
faintest  presence  of  soul,  and  would  decide  the  point 
whether  this  medium,  evidently  spread  throughout  the 
universe,  was  of  the  same  stuff  as  the  soul. 

Still  were  they  far  from  scientific  proof  of  the  eternal 
unity  and  individuality  of  the  soul.  They  had  rea- 
soned out  in  accordance  with  all  the  axioms  of  their 
science  the  indestructibility  of  energy,  and  the  rising 
untransformability  of  the  higher  types  of  energy;  they 
had  also  reasoned  out  as  certainly  that  mediums  of  en- 
ergy had  stability  of  equilibrium  proportionate  to  the 
refinement  of  the  energy  travelling  through  them,  and 
that  thus  the  soul  was  nearer  to  everlasting  persistence 
as  a  unity  than  any  medium  they  scientifically  knew. 
But  that  on  its  escape  from  the  body  it  continued  for 
ever  as  an  individuality  they  could  only  assume;  they 
could  not  prove  it.  They  shrank  from  the  idea  that  it 
was  for  ever  past  transformation;  for  that  meant  the 
eternal  continuance  of  the  last  stage  of  life.  It  was 
indeed  contrary  to  all  the  results  of  their  scientific 
investigations  to  think  that  any  type  of  energy  or 
medium  could  at  any  time  cease  to  change,  that  is,  to 
improve  or  degenerate.  Perpetual  transformation  was, 
as  far  as  they  had  been  able  to  search,  the  universal 
law:  it  might  be  into  a  higher  or  more  stable  form, 


Death  361 

or  into  a  lower  or  more  material  form,  but  onwards 
must  every  energy  move.  The  higher  it  went,  the  less 
did  it  tend  to  fall  back.  The  law  of  eternal  advance 
was  surer  in  its  action  in  the  higher  ranges  of  existence. 
And  the  whole  effort  of  L,imanoran  life  was  to  purify 
and  ennoble  the  energy  that  was  in  it.  For,  reasoning 
on  the  analogy  of  all  the  nature  they  knew,  they  had 
little  doubt  that  the  platform  they  reached  by  the  end 
of  their  terrene  life  was  the  platform  from  which  their 
enfranchised  energy  or  individuality,  whichever  it  was, 
started  on  its  new  career. 

Whether  it  was  mere  unconscious  energy  or  energy 
conscious  of  its  own  unity  that  escaped  from  the  body, 
when  it  was  left  to  the  disintegrant  power  of  micro- 
scopic organisms,  was  still  a  question.  The  recent 
discoveries  and  investigations  of  the  Ailomo  or  astrobio- 
logical  families  had  revealed  all  space  filled  not  merely 
with  types  of  energy  that  were  directed  and  did  not 
guide  themselves,  but  with  embodiments  of  energy 
which  were  clearly  individualities;  not  alone  the  poor 
microscopic  attenuations  of  life  that  were  waiting  for 
a  world  to  settle  on,  but  highly  organised  beings,  lead- 
ing a  vigorous,  self-dependent  life  in  the  vast  regions 
of  infinitude.  This  much  they  knew  from  the  filmy 
impressions  which  their  air-transcending  lavolans 
brought  down  from  the  heights  of  heaven  they  scaled. 
But  whence  those  inhabitants  of  the  ether  came  they 
had  not  yet  been  able  to  tell;  for  their  presence 
affected  no  existing  human  sense,  but  only  left  on  the 
irelium  films  certain  visible  impressions.  Whether 
they  were  refugees  from  other  stars,  or  everlasting  oc- 
cupants of  interstellar  space,  and  whether  amongst 
them  there  were  any  of  the  emancipate  from  human 
trammels  were  questions  they  had  not  yet  been  able  to 


6 


62  Limanora 


answer.  But  they  hoped  soon  to  have  an  instrument 
which  would  indicate  the  presence  of  personality  as 
apart  from  vital  energy,  and  as  apart  from  the  thought 
and  thought-faculty.  Then  would  they  be  able  to  tell 
in  what  state  the  enfranchised  energy  fled  from  the 
body  at  death. 

Amiralno  knew  not,  cared  not,  whether  he  would  re- 
tain consciousness  of  his  past,  or  would  become  but  a 
part  of  the  wandering  energy  of  space;  what  he  did 
know  was  that  he  would  be  released  from  the  burden 
of  his  body  and  the  growing  weariness  that  dragged  it 
down.  Certain  he  was  that  his  flesh-emancipated  en- 
ergy would  find  a  career  at  least  as  noble  as  his  past. 
And  he  believed  that  its  development  would  not  end 
there,  whatever  became  of  it;  whether  it  was  to  con- 
tinue the  unity  it  had  been  conscious  of  for  so  many 
years,  or  to  take  another  form  and  individuality,  was 
to  him  a  matter  of  little  concern.  One  thing  he  knew, 
and  that  was  the  growing  imperfection  of  the  body  as 
an  instrument  of  the  energy  that  functioned  it.  It 
weighted  to  the  ground  the  soul,  the  spirit,  the  mind, 
or  whatever  name  he  might  give  to  the  fiery  stuff  which 
kept  it  still  aflame,  and  yet  chafed  to  be  free.  As 
long  as  it  held  this  energy  in  leash,  it  would  live  and 
glow  with  thought.  Nor  was  this  fiery  stuff  mere 
vitality,  the  mere  principle  of  life,  though  the  two 
were  yoked  together.  It  was  different  in  quality  from 
that  which  merely  vegetated  in  the  plant,  and  that 
which  did  nothing  but  feed  and  evacuate  in  the  mol- 
lusc. Nay,  it  differed  in  inner  character,  not  merely 
from  the  mind  of  the  savage,  but  from  that  of  their  own 
highly  civilised  exiles.  Limanoran  advance  had  puri- 
fied it  of  grosser  desires  and  passions  and  made  it  a 
thing  of  ethereal  longings  and  ideals;  even  the  bod}^ 


Death  363 

had  been  transformed  into  something  more  like  what 
the  soul  of  their  far  past  had  been,  subtle,  buoyant, 
sublimated.  Still  it  dragged  the  spirit  down,  whenever 
the  limits  of  corporeal  life  became  too  apparent.  Many 
a  long  generation  of  fiery  self-disciplined  work  upon 
their  constitutions  would  it  take  even  this  marvellous 
people  to  etherealise  their  bodies  so  far  as  to  make 
them  fit  companions  of  their  souls. 

Amiralno  had  not  the  vital  energy  to  bear  up  against 
the  conditions  that  harassed  their  still  hybrid  system. 
He  had  no  desire  to  stay  and  see  the  slow  evolution  of 
a  body  that  would  pace  with  the  soul  through  infinity. 
Better  to  have  release  and  a  new  and  untrammelled 
career  even  if  the  form  he  should  take  was  unknown  to 
him.  It  was  the  nature  of  all  energy  to  change,  and 
the  higher  in  the  scale  it  rose,  the  nimbler  it  became. 
But  in  order  to  rise  it  had  to  be  yoked  for  a  time  with 
a  lower  form,  which  it  used  as  medium  and  leverage, 
leaving  it  as  soon  as  it  had  accomplished  its  due  devel- 
opment. All  things  tended  to  rise  above  themselves; 
and  it  was  the  greatest  of  disasters,  the  very  reversal  of 
nature,  if  ever  they  should  fall  back,  as  they  often  did. 
What  we  call  death  was  but  the  unyoking  of  a  higher 
energy  from  a  lower,  which  it  had  temporarily  made 
its  comrade  and  medium.  It  was  no  misfortune  or 
degradation,  but  a  step  higher  in  enfranchisement. 
The  animate  resisted  this  step,  because  one  member 
in  the  lifelong  partnership  refused  to  descend  into 
a  grosser  transformation  again.  In  the  human,  the 
nobler  the  thought-energy,  the  higher  it  strove  to  raise 
itself  before  the  inevitable  divorce  from  its  lower 
medium  and  yoke-fellow.  But  when  the  time  of  sever- 
ance approached,  it  mastered  the  reluctance  of  the 
lower,  and  yearned  to  be  set  free.     And  little  wonder 


364  Limanora 

that  the  lower  resisted;  for  back  it  had  to  fall  in  the 
cosmic  order,  and  begin  again  its  slow  progress  upward 
from  grade  to  grade;  first  into  the  clutches  of  myriads 
of  microscopic  disintegrators  of  its  tissues  that  would 
transform  it  into  food  for  plant-life,  and  then  by  weary 
stages  upwards  through  vegetable  and  animal  tissue, 
perchance  into  the  sustenance  of  thought  again. 

This  people,  I  soon  found,  had  overcome  the  ancient 
abhorrence  of  death.  For  they  identified  their  life  and 
personality  with  the  higher  of  their  energies,  and  not 
with  the  lower  and  bodily  forms.  They  shrank,  it  is 
true,  from  all  that  would  lead  to  the  divorce  of  the 
yoked  energies  of  any  animate  being  before  its  due 
time;  not  so  much  because  they  thought  this  an  evil 
for  the  victim  as  because  the  perpetration  would  im- 
plant in  the  doer  a  germ  of  retrogression.  To  be  cruel, 
to  shed  blood,  was  the  beginning  of  degradation  of  the 
soul;  it  was  one  of  the  acts  that  allowed  the  lower  to 
take  command  of  the  higher  in  their  system.  But  for 
a  Limanoran  himself  to  approach  death  became,  when- 
ever he  saw  it  to  be  inevitable,  the  keenest  joy,  in  spite 
of  the  farewells  it  entailed.  He  knew  that  thereafter, 
should  he  make  effort  to  live,  he  would  only  clog  the 
wheels  of  progress,  he  would  onlj^  be  a  burden  on  the 
race  instead  of  its  helper.  Amiralno  never  showed  the 
slightest  sign  of  shrinking  from  the  dissolution  of  his 
life-bonds.  He  was  sad  to  leave  his  lifelong  mate,  with 
whom  he  had  done  so  much  for  the  race;  but  he  knew 
that  she  would  soon  follow  him;  it  was  a  matter  of 
but  a  few  days  or  months;  her  thought-energy  would 
mingle  and  commune  with  his  again,  freed  from  the 
material  trammels  that  checked  and  dulled  their  inter- 
course in  their  terrene  life;  upwards  through  the  ether 


Death  365 

their  souls   would   climb,   ever    becoming   purer   and 
swifter  in  their  flight. 

But,  as  I  went  about  my  duties,  my  thoughts  would 
break  away  to  the  coming  death-scene  and  sadness 
would  cloud  them.  I  remembered  the  last  farewells  of 
my  buried  life,  and  most  of  all  the  watch  over  the 
fading  light  in  my  mother's  eyes.  Nothing  could  burn 
out  of  my  memory  the  bitterness  of  at  last  facing  the 
inevitable.  Slowly  had  I  been  led  by  the  physician  to 
realise  that  nothing  could  save  her,  and  still  I  hoped 
against  hope,  checking  my  tears  lest  she  should  see 
them  and  conjecture  my  alarm.  Only  when  the  lips 
became  silent  and  pale  did  I  at  last  admit  the  thought 
that  this  was  death.  How  could  I  stifle  my  grief 
longer  ?  Were  we  not  all  to  each  other,  this  mother, 
who  had  clung  to  me  and  nursed  me  through  sorrows 
and  misfortunes,  I  her  only  child,  who  had  refused  to 
leave  her  for  the  seductions  of  great  place  and  fortune  ? 
She  was  vanishing  for  ever  from  me,  and  nothing  I 
could  do  would  bring  her  back.  I  was  caught  and 
crushed  by  the  iron  hand  of  fate  and  stood  in  stony 
silence,  paralysed  by  my  grief  and  my  impotence. 
There  was  too  much  of  the  man  and  the  stoic  in  my 
young  blood  to  cry  out;  but  if  only  I  could  give  up  my 
own  life  to  bring  hers  back!  In  one  of  her  final  wak- 
ing dreams  she  prattled  and  wept  over  me  as  if  I  were 
a  child  again,  saved  once  more  from  the  clutching 
breakers.  Raising  herself  with  a  wild  cry  from  her 
pillow,  she  held  me  in  her  arms  with  fierce  love;  only 
for  a  moment;  then  the  cords  that  bound  her  life 
brake;  the  memory  had  torn  her  heart.  There  she 
lay,  all  that  I  cared  for  on  earth,  rigid,  uncaring.  If 
but  I  could  have  died  with  her  there!  Alas,  the  life  in 
me  was  too  puissant  to  yield,  the  nerves  too  tough  to 


366  Limanora 

break!  The  passion  came  on  me  to  hurl  myself  into 
her  grave  as  the  clods  fell.  It  was  but  an  insensate  im- 
pulse. I  made  no  cry  or  sign  till  I  got  into  the  lonely 
chamber;  and  there  God  alone  knows  how  I  survived 
my  hurricane  of  grief  and  desolation.  Nor  could  years 
ever  root  out  the  sorrow.  There  in  Limanora,  with  an 
abyss  between  me  and  my  past,  and  a  noble  new  life 
around  me,  I  worked  and  wept.  The  wound  had 
opened  afresh.  Was  I  never  to  commune  with  that 
loving  loved  spirit  again  ? 

There  was  a  touch  on  my  hand,  and  the  magnetism 
of  sympathy  and  consolation  flowed  through  my  sys- 
tem. It  was  Thyriel.  She  had  felt  my  deep  grief, 
though  then  at  a  great  distance  from  me,  and  without 
noise  or  speech  she  had  come  to  my  side.  So  absorbed 
had  I  been  in  my  past  and  my  sorrow  that  I  knew  not 
her  presence  till  her  magnetic  touch  awakened  me  from 
my  dream.  She  had  realised  in  a  moment  whither  my 
thoughts  had  gone,  and  reverenced  the  holy  past. 
Then,  when  the  mood  was  growing  despotic  and  para- 
lysing the  soul,  she  stepped  into  the  startled  silence.  I 
was  myself  again,  and  swept  the  unmanly  tears  away. 

Yet  I  could  not  drive  the  sadness  of  farewell  out  of 
my  system.  Here  was  this  sage,  who  had  so  often 
counselled  me  and  guided  my  faltering  footsteps,  about 
to  vanish  for  ever  from  the  scene  of  his  triumphs. 
Oblivion  would  sweep  his  memory  and  his  work  into 
the  abyss.  We  would  see  him  no  more ;  no  more  hear 
his  grave  wise  sayings,  weighted  with  the  experience  of 
centuries.  All  his  gathered  knowledge  and  skill  would 
lapse;  and  our  civilisation  would  be  the  poorer.  Up 
the  steep  of  progress  it  would  have  to  climb,  weaker  for 
the  absence  of  this  strong  arm,  this  much-exercised  and 
full  brain  and  heart. 


Death  367 

These  were  the  thoughts  at  the  root  of  my  sadness, 
when  I  was  startled  out  of  them  by  my  companion's 
voice.  She  had  waited  in  reverential  silence  as  long  as 
I  lived  my  filial  past  over  again;  but,  when  I  returned 
to  my  starting-point,  and  began  spending  fruitless  re- 
grets and  pangs  over  that  which  neither  demanded  nor 
warranted  them,  her  thoughts  broke  out  into  loud 
protest.  She  could  no  longer  endure  such  futilities, 
such  waste  of  tissue,  and  she  met  my  wailing  reflections 
one  by  one.  Amiralno  was  glad  to  leave  his  chrysalis 
stage  of  existence;  the  energy  that  was  in  him  would 
find  a  freer  scope,  a  nobler  sphere,  as  soon  as  it  had 
shed  its  earthly  trammels.  His  counsel  and  guidance 
would  not  be  lost  to  progress;  all  that  he  was  and  had 
would  still  be  part  of  what  he  would  become;  not  one 
thought  or  faculty  would  be  left  behind;  and  all  would 
then  be  spent  not  on  the  progress  of  a  little  island  of  a 
small  terrestrial  archipelago  or  its  race,  but  on  that  of 
the  universe,  if  not  of  the  cosmos.  All  of  him  that 
could  still  appeal  to  our  lower  senses  would  remain 
with  us,  and  would  immortalise  his  memory,  as  far  as 
immortality  would  go  upon  this  ephemeral  orb.  As  for 
his  sympathy  and  love,  they  were  doubtless  still  with 
us,  or  at  least  with  what  in  us  was  best  and  nearest  the 
cosmic.  The  only  thing  to  regret  was  that  we  could 
not  personally  feel  his  presence  in  the  universe.  But 
even  this  was  not  for  idle  regrets.  It  was  mere  palsy, 
if  it  did  not  stir  us  to  still  further  mastery  of  our  con- 
ditions. Were  we  not  in  the  way  to  feel  and  know  the 
escaped  spirits  of  our  dead  ?  Had  we  not  developed 
senses  in  us  that  were  receivers  of  impulses  from  the 
infinite  around  us,  impulses  that  had  been  dormant 
through  the  uncounted  past  ?  Had  we  not  instru- 
ments that  told   us  of  energies  and  beings  unfelt  even 


368  Limanora 

by  our  new-developed  senses?  And  were  we  to 
grope  in  our  prison-house,  and  wail  over  what  we 
had  lost  and  could  not  longer  see  ?  Were  we  to  sit 
in  the  darkness,  and  weep  and  wait,  hoping  for  the 
light  ?  Such  feeble  conclusions  from  the  past,  such 
futile  regrets  over  the  dead,  Limanoran  progress  could 
not  endure.  There  were  new  masteries  for  every  gen- 
eration. Before  many  years  could  pass  they  would  get 
into  touch  with  the  spirits  and  energies  that  had  fled; 
it  might  be  by  means  of  new  instruments;  it  might  be 
by  new  senses;  nothing  but  our  own  dulness  broke  the 
connection  between  our  energies  and  theirs;  what  we 
had  still  to  win  was  consciousness,  if  not  mastery,  of 
that  finer  type  of  matter  which  they  now  used  as 
medium  for  their  energy.  It  was  only  the  lifting  of 
another  of  the  myriad  veils  that  hung  before  our  senses 
dulling  their  perceptions.  This  was  no  more  than 
what  they  had  done  a  thousand  times  already.  A  death 
was  a  stimulus  to  joy  and  new  effort.  It  taught  us  the 
limits  of  our  knowledge  and  our  power;  and  limits 
known  were  limits  soon  to  be  overpassed. 

Her  bright  activity  and  banter  surprised  me  into 
laughter  at  my  own  folly  and  obtuseness.  Scarcely 
had  I  reached  this  consummation  before  I  knew  that 
there  was  gladness  in  the  air  of  the  island.  How  could 
I  have  failed  to  notice  the  jubilant  strains  that  were 
fitfully  wafted  across  my  hearing,  unless  through  my 
dull  absorption  in  my  own  feelings  ?  I  felt  thankful 
to  Thyriel  that  I  had  been  drawn  out  of  my  isolation, 
which  seemed  to  me  now  little  less  than  disloyalty  to 
the  race  that  had  done  so  much  for  me. 

I  wondered  what  could  be  the  occasion  of  all  this 
exultation  that  I  was  conscious  of.     Paean  after  paean 


Death  369 

rose  from  every  part  of  the  island,  and,  as  the  moments 
passed,  the  many -sounding  music  seemed  to  gather  to- 
wards one  centre.  The  radius  lessened,  and  adjacent 
masses  of  melody  fused  together.  Nearer  and  nearer 
they  came,  ever  more  coalescing  and  lessening  in  num- 
ber; then  the  jubilance  melted  into  grave  and  massive 
harmony,  and  I  recognised  some  of  the  world-music  I 
had  heard  from  the  cosmophone.  The  sense  of  uni- 
verses creating  and  dissolving  sprang  into  my  mind.  It 
was  the  diapason  of  creation  that  was  ringing  through 
the  island.  L,oud,  then  low,  the  cosmic  symphony 
swept  the  amosphere  like  a  tempest.  I  knew  that  some 
far-reaching  event  or  movement  was  occurring  amongst 
this  people. 

I  turned  to  my  comrade  to  confirm  and  define  my 
conjectures,  but  she  was  gone.  Away  on  the  horizon 
I  could  see  the  rapid  beat  of  her  wings.  I  followed  as 
swiftly  as  I  could,  atrd,  as  I  rose  in  the  air,  I  saw  com- 
pany after  company  soaring  like  coveys  of  birds  towards 
a  high  isolated  plateau  that  stretched  from  far  up  L,ila- 
roma  and  beetled  cliff-like  over  the  sea.  I  had  often 
used  it  as  a  flight-platform  whence  I  could  spring  into 
the  air,  and  had  long  known  it  by  the  name  of  Dooma- 
lona.  I  had  never  thought  over  the  meaning  of  the 
word,  but  now  it  flashed  upon  me  that  it  meant  the  hill 
of  farewells.  Thence  messengers  who  were  embarking 
on  difficult  and  important  expeditions  set  out.  The 
elders  of  the  people  and  the  families  of  the  couriers 
came  here  to  give  them  their  love  and  benison,  in  order 
to  make  them  feel,  as  they  journeyed,  that  the  sym- 
pathy of  their  home  went  with  them  like  a  fire  from  the 
hearth. 

I  had  observed  that  in  these  farewells  this  simple- 
hearted  people  made  little  outward  sign  of  the  depth  of 


37°  Limanora 

their  emotions.  Only  the  magnetic  look  out  of  the 
eyes  would  have  told  a  stranger  what  benignity  lay 
underneath.  Nor  was  it  merely  to  show  how  sympa- 
thetic they  were  that  they  thus  accompanied  their  for- 
eign couriers  to  the  outskirts  of  the  island.  It  was 
chiefly  to  give  them  each  his  contribution  of  magnet- 
ism, to  lessen  their  burden  on  their  far  journey,  to 
make  them  feel  how  much  the  spirit  of  the  community 
went  with  them.  Not  one  of  them  would  ever  allow 
himself  to  indulge  in  so  idle  an  evidence  of  emotion  as 
tears.  There  was  in  this  people  a  vein  of  stoicism,  I 
thought;  they  seemed  to  repress  all  mere  symbols  of 
feeling.  A  European  would  have  called  their  farewells 
dull  and  emotionless,  if  not  stony-hearted.  There  was 
no  kissing  or  embracing;  there  was  not  even  the  shak- 
ing of  hands  or  bowing  of  heads.  Without  physical 
contact  their  spirits  could  work  upon  each  other  with 
a  power  that  in  other  civilisations  would  have  been 
called  witchcraft.  Through  their  firlas,  through  their 
eyes,  rayed  forth  a  keen  soul-stirring  magnetism.  And 
each  assisted  the  other  in  preventing  the  approach  of 
the  old  wasteful  manifestations  of  sorrow  or  despon- 
dency. Lamentation  was  a  thing  of  the  far,  almost 
prehistoric,  past;  a  sob  or  sigh  or  even  complaint  they 
knew  too  well  from  their  physiological  knowledge  to 
be  mere  emotional  extravagance,  a  waste  of  the  energy 
or  the  tissue,  all  of  which  was  needed  for  the  strenuous 
endeavour  towards  a  higher  plane.  So  it  was  that  they 
seemed  to  me  stoical  in  positions  where  the  men  and 
women  I  had  known  in  my  youth  would  burst  into 
weeping  and  wailing,  or  cries  and  gestures  of  affection. 
But  in  these  scenes  of  farewell  there  was  needed  little 
energy  of  repression;  the  real  struggle  had  occurred 
many  generations  before  in  their  history.     They  had 


Deaih  371 

once  had  a  most  elaborate  symbolism  not  merely  of  feel- 
ings but  of  almost  every  human  thought  and  spiritual 
attitude.  But  when  the  great  national  repentance  was 
leading  to  the  series  of  exilings  that  ultimately  purified 
the  race,  they  became  uneasy  about  this  vast  system 
of  symbolism;  it  covered  their  whole  existence  from 
birth  to  death,  from  toothache  to  the  salvation  of  the 
soul,  and  seemed  to  be  nature  her  very  self.  They  had 
long  known  it  to  be  the  nesting-place  of  all  hypocrisies 
and  untruth.  Under  its  shelter  mean  things  and  falsity 
and  even  grossness  and  cruelty  could  flourish  fearless 
of  harm.  Everything  could  masquerade  in  the  guise 
of  anything  else  it  pleased.  Of  course  there  were  pain- 
ful revelations  and  scandals  at  times;  but  they  were 
soon  hushed  up.  The  system  was  too  much  the  in- 
terest of  all  who  had  power  or  reputation  or  prosperity, 
the  best  of  what  was  then  life,  to  let  it  get  into  disre- 
pute, or  into  risk  of  revolution  or  reform.  There  were 
various  professions  which  were  deeply  involved  in  the 
retention  of  it,  and  they  were  recruited  chiefly  from 
the  highest  social  classes.  The  lawyers  battened  on  the 
ambiguity  of  the  symbols,  whether  expressed  in  word 
or  deed;  the  doctors  would  have  lost  half  their  hysteri- 
cal and  hypochondriac  patients  if  it  had  been  abol- 
ished ;  without  it  the  life  and  pretensions  of  the  military 
during  time  of  peace  would  have  been  a  farce  and  a 
mockery;  and  the  occupation  of  the  priests  would  have 
vanished  altogether.  Ceremony  seemed  the  very  life- 
blood  of  an  aristocratic  state,  and  especially  of  its  army 
and  its  church.  It  kept  the  mere  workers  and  plodders 
at  a  respectful  distance,  it  fenced  off  criticism,  and 
supplied  topics  for  the  tongue  of  fame.  To  abolish 
ceremony  would  have  been  to  strike  at  the  heart  of  all 
existing  institutions. 


372  Limanora 

But,  as  the  purgation  proceeded,  every  occasion  for 
it  naturally  disappeared.  Ceremonial  ceased  when  the 
church  lapsed  and  the  priestly  profession  went  into 
exile.  Ceremony  vanished  with  the  expulsion  of  the 
militant  elements  and  the  professional  politicians.  The 
bureau  of  fame  collapsed  with  its  accursed  spawn,  un- 
charitableness  and  evil  feeling,  servility,  adulation, 
and  pretence.  The  pharisaism  of  the  whole  system 
stood  out  in  all  its  offensiveuess,  and  the  foulness  and 
injustice  that  were  concealed  by  this  constant  mas- 
querade in  the  robes  of  greatness.  It  was  meant  to 
overawe  the  unthinking,  to  make  ignorance  grovel  at 
the  feet  of  those  in  power.  It  had  been  useful  in  far 
past  times  of  savagery  in  cowing  the  beast  in  the  hu- 
man mind  and  keeping  it  caged.  But  a  form  that  has 
life  and  meaning  and  power  in  the  ruder  stages  of  de- 
velopment becomes  a  curse,  if  continued  into  periods 
of  advanced  civilisation.  They  now  felt  that  their  elab- 
orate symbolism  had  been  an  insult  to  their  intelli- 
gence; for  they  had  no  brutality  in  them  to  be  muzzled. 
To  keep  up  the  pretence  of  greatness  or  virtue  or  love 
or  respect  or  truth,  where  there  was  none,  was  useful 
as  long  as  most  of  the  community  were  ignorant,  or  su- 
perstitious, or  fierce  and  intolerant  in  disposition.  But 
when  the  race  had  grown  gentle  and  humane  and  more 
and  more  progressive,  it  was  not  merely  a  farce  to  re- 
tain so  much  deception  and  mummery  in  life,  it  was  a 
gross  outrage  on  all  that  was  just  and  noble  and 
spiritual.  Why  should  not  the  reverence  or  affection 
of  the  human  spirit  be  allowed  to  shine  forth  from  the 
countenance  without  such  ridiculous  trammels,  such 
coarse  humiliations  ?  Forms  compelling  a  show  of  rev- 
erence or  love  where  there  is  none,  are  but  the  trap- 
pings of  slaves,  and  soon  ingrain  the   thoughts  and 


Death  373 

feelings  of  slaves  on  the  one  side,  whilst  bringing  out 
and  confirming  the  nature  of  bullies  and  tyrants  on  the 
other.  Every  relic  of  a  past  that  had  harboured  aud 
perpetuated  such  a  system  was  painfully  ejected  from 
their  natures.  They  would  have  nothing  in  them  that 
savoured  of  such  a  death-in-life.  All  mere  forms,  all 
ceremonials  and  ceremonies  had  to  go.  Ostentation 
and  parade  became  abhorrent  to  them.  Pageant  and 
spectacle,  pomp  and  solemnity  vanished  from  their 
lives.  All  formality  of  manner  or  intercourse,  even 
etiquette  and  salutation,  was  driven  out  with  con- 
tumely. 

One  of  the  most  singular  effects  of  this  expulsion 
of  mere  symbolism  was  the  disappearance  of  ridicule 
and  jest.  This  disappearance  was  quite  unexpected, 
and  yet,  when  they  came  to  reflect  on  the  phenomenon, 
they  saw  how  natural  it  was.  The  obverse  of  the  pas- 
sion for  applause  and  influence  is  necessarily  the  desire 
to  depreciate  possible  rivals,  to  make  them  seem  small, 
and  even  to  trample  them  in  the  dust.  And  the  most 
successful  and  least  apparently  ill-natured  method  of 
fulfilling  this  is  to  get  them  laughed  at  and  so  con- 
temned. With  the  ignoble  itch  for  fame  went  the  love 
of  ridicule.  The  jesters,  habitual  as  well  as  profes- 
sional, disappeared  with  the  priests,  the  soldiers,  the 
lawyers,  and  the  politicians.  Not  that  the  Limanorans 
abandoned  the  use  of  humour;  the}*  still  saw  too  clearly 
the  incongruities  of  existence,  cosmic  as  well  as  human, 
to  cease  bringing  them  out  in  startling  flashes  of  vivid 
expression.  They  never  indulged  in  that  boisterous 
laughter  which  is  so  often  thought  in  the  West  the 
simplest  and  most  primitive  guaranty  of  enjoyment; 
for  that  is  as  much  a  waste  of  valuable  tissue  as  uncon- 
trollable grief.     Their  laughter  was  of  that  low,  gentle, 


374  Limanora 

tolerant,  almost  inward,  kind,  which  brightens  the  na- 
ture to  its  very  heart;  its  only  outer  mark  was  perhaps 
a  smile.  Never  indeed  was  I  amongst  a  people  that 
looked  at  existence  so  cheerfully  or  enjoyed  its  little 
ironies  with  so  light-hearted  a  geniality.  Buoyancy, 
joyousness,  was  the  most  constant  characteristic  of 
their  spirits.  Their  intercourse  with  each  other  was 
ever  sunny  and  pleasaut-witted,  though  never  jocular. 
There  was  no  malice  or  false  sense  of  superiority  in 
their  humour  or  laughter. 

But  jest  they  came  to  abhor  as  an  indignity  to  the 
human  spirit  which  was  striving  to  obliterate  all  traces 
of  its  ape-ancestry.  The  jester  implied  or  produced 
contempt  for  his  topic,  for  his  victim,  and  generally  for 
himself.  He  usually  adopted  mimicry  as  the  easiest 
method  of  bringing  about  his  effect.  And  so  he  nursed 
the  ape  in  him,  and  pointed  back  to  the  vile  type  from 
which  he  had  sprung.  It  was  the  other  kinship  of 
man,  his  divine  relationship,  that  the  L,imanorans  pre- 
ferred to  acknowledge  and  nurture.  Never  did  they 
forget  it  in  their  conduct.  It  moulded  their  ideals,  it 
directed  their  purposes,  it  created  their  instincts.  And 
to  use  ridicule  was  to  outrage  it,  to  call  up  the  beast  in 
them,  the  element,  the  ancestry  that  they  did  their 
best  to  forget.  Whenever  the  sense  of  mutual  sym- 
pathy crept  through  the  community,  the  degradation  of 
jest  and  ridicule,  not  for  the  victim  alone,  but  for  the 
jester,  became  self-evident.  They  were  felt  to  be  in- 
humane, if  not  inhuman,  and  died  an  easy  death  with 
all  the  vast  system  of  symbolism. 

It  was  a  surprise  to  me  then  to  see  so  large  an  as- 
semblage winging  their  way  to  Doomalona.  It  seemed 
as  if  there  was  about  to  be  a  great  ceremonial.     And  I 


Death  375 

was  not  long  in  doubt  as  to  the  occasion.  For  with 
music  that  rose  and  fell  in  marvellous  rhythm  like  the 
waves  of  the  sea  there  came  across  the  sky  a  splendid 
flight-car,  more  brilliant  in  opalescent  glow,  more  ma- 
jestic in  architecture,  than  anything  T  had  ever  seen. 
Its  wings  flashed  fire  through  the  air  and  seemed  to 
weave  the  lightnings  of  heaven  into  a  diaphanous  web. 
It  was  a  car  of  victory;  for  around  it  bands  of  flying 
youth  raised  jubilant  harmony,  and  over  its  rear  rose  a 
canopy  crowned  with  fire.  As  it  floated  nearer  I  could 
see  beneath  this  a  figure  resting  upon  an  elevated 
<"Ouch.  The  music  grew  more  loudly  triumphant  as  it 
hovered  downwards  to  the  central  plateau  of  the  hill 
of  farewells.  And  then  I  knew  that  this  was  Amir- 
alno  on  the  couch;  and  all  the  people,  except  the  few 
who  were  needed  for  the  essential  services  of  the 
island,  had  assembled  to  bid  him  farewell,  as  he  sped 
in  front  of  them  into  the  land  of  shadows  whither  no 
eye  could  penetrate. 

I  had  without  knowing  it  landed  close  to  Thyriel, 
so  absorbed  had  I  been  in  the  wondrous  spectacle. 
She  had  been  busy  with  the  chorus  of  acclaim,  her 
thoughts  bent  on  this  rare  scene  of  farewell;  and  she 
had  not  noticed  my  approach.  Then  a  sudden  silence, 
as  Amiralno  stepped  from  the  faleena,  startled  the 
great  concourse  out  of  their  entranced  attitude;  their 
thoughts  were  set  free  as  by  the  touch  of  a  magic 
wand.  It  was  at  this  that  Thyriel  became  conscious  of 
my  presence.  I  knew  in  a  moment  that  she  had  recog- 
nised the  criticism  in  my  mind.  Yet  she  did  not  an- 
swer or  explain  the  anomaly.  She  remained  perfectly 
still. 

A  burst  of  jubilant  music  broke  my  reverie,  as  the 
sudden  silence  had  broken  it  before.     It  led  me  back 


376  Limanora 

to  the  symphony  of  the  spheres  to  which  I  had  been  ac- 
customed to  listen  with  rapt  attention.  I  could  recog- 
nise the  harmonious  strain  that  meant  the  creation  of  a 
world.  I  could  almost  see  the  whirling  orb  of  fire,  as 
it  flew  off  from  the  parent  sun,  and  swept  into  its  glow- 
ing round  through  heaven.  Nothing  I  had  ever  heard 
could  match  the  rapturous  melody  which  expressed  the 
approach  of  life  to  the  surface  of  the  new  star.  Quicker 
and  quicker  grew  the  pace,  and  higher  the  pitch,  as  the 
living  creation  developed  and  spread  over  the  world. 
Then  came  a  wild  dithyramb,  as  man  broke  from  his 
bestial  surroundings,  and  mastered  his  fellow-beasts  by 
cunning,  and  drew  fire  from  heaven  for  his  purposes. 
A  nobler  strain  followed,  rhythmically  measuring  the 
steps  by  which  he  rose  out  of  himself  and  climbed  the 
steep  of  heaven.  Silver-toned  harmonies  told  of  his 
masterpieces  of  art.  Loud  diapasons  spoke  out  his 
marching  armies  and  fierce  battles.  Soft  involved 
fugues  and  dulcet  chants  expressed  the  struggles  and 
conquests  of  thought. 

I  stood  absorbed  in  the  interpretation  of  this  ravish- 
ing music,  and  failed  to  observe  the  progress  of  events 
upon  the  lofty  plateau.  Amiralno  had  taken  up  an 
erect  position  on  what  might  have  been  called  an  altar, 
had  the  scene  been  a  religious  one.  His  face  was  to- 
wards heaven.  He  held  his  right  hand  as  if  waving 
back  those  whom  he  forbade  to  follow  him;  for  close  to 
him  stood  the  partner  of  his  earthly  life,  her  face  set  as 
if  she  would  depart.  Around  stood  his  lifelong  com- 
rades and  counsellors,  yet  at  a  lower  level,  so  that  every 
act  of  the  departing  could  be  seen  by  the  concourse. 
Near  him  were  erected  two  columns,  on  the  higher  of 
which  and  above  his  head  I  could  distinguish  a  psy- 
chometer,  on  the  lower  a  biometer.     Behind  him  had 


Death  377 

been  built  into  the  rock  an  elaborate  piece  of  machin- 
ery, which  I  recognised  as  a  manana  or  petrifier.  Often 
had  I  seen  it  transfix  almost  in  a  moment  a  beautiful 
plant,  substituting  irelium  for  its  living  tissues,  and 
making  every  leaf  and  flower  of  its  translucent  crystal. 
By  means  of  electric  currents,  it  sent  streams  of  the 
atomic  constituents  of  irelium  along  the  sap-channels 
from  rootlet  to  leaf- tip;  it  used  the  living  powers  of  the 
plant  to  turn  it  as  it  died  into  undecaying  metal.  For 
hundreds  of  years  the  flower  would  live  and  be  a  thing 
of  beauty,  even  if  no  care  was  further  spent  on  it;  and, 
if  cared  for,  it  would  resist  the  finger  of  decay  for  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  years. 

At  last  I  was  to  see  the  transfiguration  of  a  Lima- 
noran.  I  had  often  almost  doubted  the  origin  of  those 
lifelike  statues  that  stood  in  Fialume,  and  death  was  so 
rare  a  thing  among  this  long-lived  people  that  during 
my  many  years  amongst  them  I  had  never  had  the 
opportunity  of  satisfying  the  doubt.  Curiosity  over- 
shadowed my  other  feelings  and  made  me  forget  the 
grief  which  would  keep  creeping  into  my  heart  at  this 
farewell  scene  in  spite  of  the  jubilant  music.  I  strained 
every  nerve  and  sense  to  catch  the  features  of  the 
strange  event.  Thyriel,  I  felt,  was  as  eager  as  I  to  see 
all  that  would  occur,  and  I  could  see  that  the  younger 
half  of  the  concourse  had  their  attention  closely  riveted 
upon  the  scene. 

The  observer  of  the  biometer  raised  his  eyes  to  the 
indicator,  which  had  now  begun  to  move  in  rapid  oscil- 
lations. Amiralno  lifted  the  forefinger  of  his  left  hand 
as  if  giving  a  signal.  He  looked  back  a  moment  with 
longing  in  his  eyes  at  his  life-partner.  From  the 
manana  there  sprang  out  an  upright  groove  towards 
the  dying  man,   and  in  this   he   was   caught,    as   his 


37&  Limanora 

vitalityrose  to  its  greatest  effort  before  the  final  collapse. 
The  indicator  of  the  sidralan  shot  upwards  with  great 
violence,  and  then  fell  still.  Almost  at  the  same  mo- 
ment the  guardian  who  stood  on  the  loftier  column  be- 
side the  psychometer  raised  himself  in  agitation.  The 
indicator  had  begun  the  same  violent  oscillations  as 
that  of  the  biometer.  There  could  be  little  doubt  that 
the  individual  energy  or  soul  of  the  vanished  Amiralno 
had  passed  near  it  in  his  flight  upwards. 

Through  the  brief  and  impressive  scene  the  note  of 
creation  rang  in  the  music  that  filled  the  air,  and  never 
that  of  dissolution.  Then  burst  forth  the  chorus  of 
freedom,  which  was  the  national  song,  if  anything 
might  be  so  called.  It  was  the  liberation  of  the  energy 
of  their  friend  and  comrade  that  they  united  to  cele- 
brate, his  entrance  on  a  new  career  untrammelled  by 
lower  forms  of  inert  energy.  The  music  rose  as  if  on 
wings,  higher,  higher,  ever  more  exhilarant.  There 
were  in  it  none  of  the  undertones,  or  deeper  notes,  or 
mystic  subtleties  that  marked  so  many  of  their  spheral 
harmonies.  It  was  a  sound  of  pure  joy,  ethereal,  su- 
pernal, unalloyed  by  any  terrene  longings.  Who  could 
think  of  grief  or  the  bitterness  of  farewells,  as  long  as 
it  rang  through  the  sky  ?  Courage,  confidence  to  climb 
upwards  was  the  only  emotion  that  could  live  with  joy 
in  its  presence. 

Suddenly  the  music  broke  away  into  a  tempest  of 
cosmic  melody.  Now  wailed  forth  the  wild  song  of 
dissolution  of  worlds,  again  the  clashing  of  conflicting 
systems,  followed  by  the  surge  of  new  life  in  orbs  that 
were  to  whirl  through  space  and  elevate  the  existence 
upon  them  for  thousands  of  thousands  of  ages.  It  was 
the  music  of  mingled  creation  and  disintegration,  of 
development  and  decay  which  we  heard  once  more. 


Death  379 

Our  thoughts  were  recalled  from  the  heights  of 
heaven,  whither  the  lost  personality  of  our  guide  and 
friend  had  fled.  We  were  absorbed  again  in  the  strug- 
gle of  a  mixed  existence;  we  felt  again  the  agonies  of 
the  higher  active  energies  bound  to  lower  and  merely 
latent  energies.  My  eyes  came  down  to  the  scene  of 
the  last  farewell.  There  stood  the  almost  living  statue 
of  our  vanished  brother,  erect,  eager  as  for  flight,  as 
at  the  moment  when  his  energy  had  gone  forth.  But 
now  it  had  the  clear  metallic  translucence  of  the  thou- 
sands I  had  seen  in  Fialume.  The  transfiguration  was 
complete. 

But  there  was  more  on  the  plateau  than  the  figure  of 
what  had  been.  Beside  it  with  rapt,  pleading  gaze  on 
her  face  stood  yet  unmoved  the  life-comrade  of  the 
vanished.  The  manana  was  again  in  position,  the 
observers  again  stood  by  the  biometer  and  the  psy- 
chometer.  Another  scene  of  departure  and  trans- 
figuration was  to  be  enacted.  The  whole  consciousness 
of  the  community  had  granted  without  words  the  peti- 
tion of  Amiralno's  spouse.  *  Nothing  seemed  to  be  so 
fitting  as  that  the  two  should  leave  their  trammelled 
life  together,  and  within  the  space  of  a  few  hundred 
beatings  of  the  pulse  partner  had  followed  partner. 
The  two  lives,  joined  for  so  many  centuries,  had  come 
to  a  close  together.  Out  into  infinite  space  had  fled  the 
two  intertwined  energies,  only  a  few  heartbeats  apart. 
Perhaps  together  they  would  find  their  new  sphere, 
their  new  platform  for  still  higher  flight  through  the 
diviner  stages  of  existence. 

The  Iyimanorans,  when  they  had  reached  what  they 
considered  the  limits  of  their  usefulness  in  corporeal 
life,  gained  an  instinctive  knowledge  of  the  moment 
when  death  was  certain  to  come,  or  perhaps  it  was  an 


380  Limanora 

instinctive  power  of  dying.  It  is  a  common  thing  to 
see  amongst  savage  or  half-civilised  tribes  a  man  or 
woman  in  full  health  deliberately  lie  down,  turn  the 
face  away  from  friends  and  light,  and  prepare  to  die. 
They  seem  to  know  when  their  destiny  is  coming  upon 
them,  and  nothing  will  persuade  them  to  take  measures 
for  driving  it  off.  Strong  though  the  currents  of  life 
may  be  flowing  in  the  veins  at  the  moment,  it  is  not 
long  before  they  have  completely  ebbed,  and  left  the 
body  a  pulseless  mass  of  inert  matter.  It  was  this 
instinct,  whether  prophetic  or  suicidal,  that  the  aged 
amongst  this  people  seemed  to  resume  when  they  had 
weighed  the  vital  powers  in  their  systems  against  the 
duties  that  new  ages  with  their  progress  would  bring, 
and  found  them  wanting.  Destiny  seemed  to  speak 
out  to  them,  when  they  saw  the  transference  of  the 
minus  to  the  wrong  side.  Their  minds  were  made  up 
and  it  needed  but  a  few  days  or  hours  to  set  the  im- 
prisoned energy  free.  In  these  later  and  more  scien- 
tific ages  there  was  some  delay,  and  not  uncommonly  a 
postponement  of  the  departure.  A  careful  examination 
of  the  system  by  means  of  their  new  scientific  instru- 
ments revealed  some  radical  mistake  in  the  judgment 
of  the  elder  as  to  himself,  or  the  demands  of  a  new  age 
of  discovery  made  the  need  of  more  brains  and  hands 
imperative.  The  result  was  the  same  in  both  cases; 
the  reason  was  persuaded  to  give  up  its  resolve;  life 
flowed  on  in  the  veins  with  even  power  again;  all  the 
old  duties  were  resumed;  and  the  day  of  farewells  was 
put  off  till  a  more  convenient  season.  But  once  they 
were  convinced  that  they  were  retarding  progress  in- 
stead of  accelerating  it,  the  end,  they  felt,  was  within 
measurable  distance;  they  straightway  relinquished 
their  grasp  of  life;  they  withdrew  purpose  and  power 


Death  381 

of  will  from  all  their  vital  functions;  and  the  moment 
of  the  final  collapse  was  practically  within  their  own 
choice,  as  soon  as  they  had  the  consciousness  of  the 
whole  community  with  them. 

Here  stood  two  solid  memorials  to  the  working  of 
this  prescient  or  devitalising  power.  The  beauty  of 
expression  on  the  two  faces  was  very  striking.  The 
attitudes  were  as  natural  and  noble  as  life  itself,  that 
of  Amiralno  bidding  his  partner  farewell,  hers  full  of 
loving  petition  to  follow.  That  the  whole  people  ap- 
proved was  clear  in  the  heartiness  with  which  they 
broke  into  the  song  of  liberation.  Everyone  was  glad 
that  the  energies  of  these  two,  who  had  done  their  full 
duty  by  the  race,  were  free  to  enter  other  spheres,  and 
follow  other  than  the  terrene  methods  of  advance. 
Reverently,  but  still  with  great  rejoicing,  the  family  of 
the  departed  placed  the  two  lifelike  statues  in  the  car 
of  victor}',  and  guided  it  in  triumphal  flight  to  the  val- 
ley of  memories.  Then  the  people  as  reverently  and 
joyously  bent  their  way  to  the  duties  they  had  left. 

I  stood  in  a  day-dream  of  the  strange  but  noble  ways 
of  life  that  this  people  followed,  and  suddenly  awakened 
to  find  myself  alone  on  the  hill  of  farewells  overlooking 
the  ocean.  Sorrow  over  the  departures  I  had  witnessed 
welled  back  into  my  heart;  I  had  not  yet  got  rid  of  the 
old  attitude  of  Western  civilisation  towards  death. 
With  the  sorrow  mingled  still  the  old  curiosity;  ques- 
tions sprang  into  my  mind  concerning  the  significance 
of  the  ceremony  I  had  seen;  or  was  it  a  ceremony  ?  I 
was  startled  with  the  answer  in  the  negative.  It  came 
from  Thyriel,  who,  knowing  my  doubts,  had  remained 
to  solve  them.  Soon  I  knew  the  whole  meaning  of  the 
scene.     It  was  not  premeditated.     There  was  nothing 


382  Limanora 

deliberate  about  it  except  the  deaths  themselves.  The 
dulness  of  my  own  inner  senses  had  prevented  me  from 
knowing  the  common  impulse  of  the  race  towards 
Doomalona.  As  soon  as  Amiralno  had  finally  resolved 
to  die,  the  consciousness  of  his  resolve  spread  over  the 
island,  and  stirred  the  people  at  their  duties  to  common 
action.  They  knew  that  the  hill  of  farewells  would  be 
the  scene  of  the  departure,  and  in  bands  singing  the 
cosmic  music  of  farewell  they  made  their  flight  through 
the  air  to  give  a  last  valediction  to  the  voyager  into  the 
unknown  and  to  impart  to  him  in  his  final  effort  on 
earth  all  the  magnetic  power  they  could  spare  for  him 
on  his  journey.  Every  act  of  what  I  had  thought  was 
a  ceremonial  was  the  natural  and  spontaneous  impulse 
of  a  people  united  in  spirit.  Their  music  and  the 
changes  in  it  were  due  to  no  leader  or  signal,  but  to 
the  sympathetic  inspiration  of  the  moment.  Their 
creational  chant  was  an  assertion  of  their  mood  of  be- 
lief that  this  scene  was  one  of  advance,  and  not  of  retro- 
gression, of  development  and  not  of  decay,  that  the  act 
was  as  much  an  act  of  cosmic  life  as  the  creation  of  a 
world.  Certain  portions  of  the  system  were  about  to 
become  manifestly  inert,  those  which  were  called  bodily 
and  material,  but  which  were  as  truly  forms  of  energy 
as  the  individual  energy  that  was  being  liberated. 
They  were  made  unchanging,  permanent,  for  a  time, 
and  so  were  unable  to  progress  or  retrograde;  they 
were  to  retain  their  energy  in  latency  for  a  period  long 
or  short;  but  at  last  they  too,  when  their  immediate 
purpose  of  remembrance  of  the  vanished  was  served, 
would  be  set  free  to  take  other  forms.  Their  creational 
music  was  intended,  if  there  was  any  intention  in  so 
spontaneous  a  thing,  to  keep  before  their  minds  the 
progressive  and  evolutionary  nature  of  death,  and  to 


Death  383 

quell  the  old  and  barbarous  attitude  of  grief  which 
might  attempt  to  show  itself  when  they  were  bidding 
the  final  farewell  to  a  comrade.  It  was  meant  to  bring 
into  prominence  the  joy  of  the  spirit  freed  from  the 
bondage  to  lower  forms  of  energy,  and  the  delight  of 
all  who  remained  in  the  progress  of  the  cosmos,  even 
though  the  immediate  act  should  imply  a  separation  of 
a  loved  spirit  from  them.  It  helped  them  to  repress 
any  sadness  at  the  thought  that  they  might  never 
recognise  the  energy  of  their  lost  comrade  again  as  an 
individual  and  personal  thing.  Enough  for  them  that 
the  sum  of  existence  should  be  enriched  by  the  change 
which  was  occurring  to  him. 

But  was  it  not  a  grief  to  them  that  the  parting  was 
perhaps  eternal,  as  far  as  personal  recognition  went  ? 
The  question  rose  spontaneously  in  my  mind;  and  I 
was  answered  almost  before  I  had  thought  it.  The 
doubt  was  still  unsolved  whether  as  impersonal  energy 
they  developed  into  something  new  at  death  and  for 
ever  ceased  to  bear  marks  and  memories  of  the  phase 
of  existence  they  had  just  left,  or  whether  they  sallied 
forth  from  the  bonds  of  a  lower  and  inert  energy  into 
the  freer  scope  of  infinity,  an  individual  and  complete 
unity.  This  doubt,  they  were  certain,  would  be  solved 
some  day  by  scientific  experiment.  Meantime  there 
were  compensating  advantages,  whichever  alternative 
was  true.  If  they  continued  the  personality  they  had 
already  developed  on  earth  without  break  in  conscious- 
ness or  memory,  then  would  they  recognise  their  old 
comrades  and  partners  in  L,imanoran  life,  and  make 
further  progress  through  existence  together. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  break  in  the  con- 
tinuity, and  only  as  an  impersonal  energy  they  passed 
forth  into  the  interstellar  spaces,  then  would  there  be 


384  Limanora 

the  obliteration  of  all  the  animal  and  barbarous  past 
which  they  abhorred,  as  well  as  of  the  immediate  and 
Limanoran  past  which  they  loved.  Any  being  that 
has  advanced  much  in  its  more  recent  stages  must 
naturally  try  to  forget  the  lower  stages  through  which 
it  has  gone  in  a  more  distant  past.  They  were  by  no 
means  proud  of  their  relationship  to  their  exiles  or  to 
the  still  older  and  wider  humanity  existing  outside  of 
their  archipelago.  To  remember  it  was  to  encourage 
the  lower  and  less-advancing  man  in  them.  To  forget 
it  was  one  of  the  ethical  duties  which  their  progress 
demanded.  It  was  only  as  a  horror,  as  a  possible  hell 
into  which  they  might  fall,  if  they  retrograded,  that  it 
was  still  brought  before  them. 

A  race  or  nation  that  remains  long  proud  of  its  past 
must  be  but  imperceptibly  progressive,  if  it  is  pro- 
gressive at  all.  Its  ethical  point  of  view  is  stationary, 
its  morals  and  religion  are  stagnant.  The  history  of  a 
people  should  rapidly  come  to  seem  ignoble  to  it,  if  it 
does  its  duty  to  itself  and  its  progress.  What  is  the 
history  of  other  races  but  a  record  of  wars,  of  wholesale 
slaughters,  because  of  the  ambition  of  a  man  or  a  sec- 
tion of  men  ?  And  as  long  as  we  are  proud  of  such  a 
past  we  can  never  advance.  To  have  an  ancestry 
nobler  than  ourselves  is  an  undying  disgrace,  and  to 
suggest  such  a  thing  to  a  man  should  be  considered  the 
grossest  insult.  Where  a  people  is  developing  as  it 
ought  to  develop  in  the  brief  period  it  has  upon  earth, 
oblivion  should  be  one  of  its  foremost  duties  to  all  but 
its  immediate  past.  Man  has  forgotten  his  bestial 
ancestry  so  effectually  that  when  he  comes  across  the 
manifest  relics  of  the  relationship  in  his  system,  he 
is  startled  and  wildly  denies  it.  If  he  progressed  as 
rapidl3'  as  he  ought  to  do,  after  there  has  been  im- 


Death  3^5 

planted  in  him  the  divine  principle  of  reason,  then 
would  he  as  surely  cast  into  oblivion  his  savage  and 
semi-civilised  ancestry.  Out  with  the  ape  and  all  relics 
and  memories  of  it  is  the  struggle  of  thinking  men.  To 
be  done  with  the  crude  undeveloped  past  is  the  duty  of 
progressive  men.  The  ideal  of  to-day  should  be  the 
commonplace  of  to-morrow,  and  the  disgrace  of  next 
week.  It  was  useful  to  study  the  immediate  past  in 
order  to  get  perspective  for  the  present,  and  to  decide  on 
the  rate  of  progress  for  the  future.  But  it  was  becoming 
doubtful  to  this  people  whether  they  should  perpetuate 
in  the  valley  of  memories  so  much  of  the  past  after  it 
had  faded  into  insignificance.  They  had  come  to  think 
that  to  forget  was  as  necessary  to  the  advance  of  man 
as  to  remember,  and  that  a  universal  rubbish-destructor 
for  the  now  poverty-stricken  achievements  of  their  far 
past  would  one  day  become  essential.  As  it  was  they 
still  preserved  records  of  them  lest  some  historical 
question  might  grow  to  be  of  importance  to  their  future. 
It  was  little  wonder  then  that  they  had  no  great 
abhorrence  for  the  obliteration  of  the  past  from  their 
energy  at  death.  If  the  other  alternative  were  the  true, 
and  if,  as  so  many  religions  teach,  they  were  to  be 
herded  with  the  criminal  and  besotted  and  undeveloped 
souls  that  have  passed  from  the  earth,  then  might  they 
bid  farewell  to  true  progress  beyond  death.  And  what 
is  the  meaning  of  continuity  of  existence  and  memory, 
unless  it  be  the  intercourse  of  terrene  souls  in  the  life 
outside  of  life  ?  To  be  rid  of  the  flesh  and  its  inert 
energies  is  still  to  be  enslaved  to  worse  evils,  the  possi- 
bility of  contact  with  the  foul  beings  that  inhabit  the 
human  form,  even  the  noblest  and  most  belauded  hu- 
man  form.     The  Limanorans  would   gladly  abandon 

the  delight  of  recognising  and  loving  again  the  souls 

25 


386  Limanora 

they  knew  and  loved,  if  only  to  be  free  from  such  a 
horror.  Better  almost  annihilation  than  enslavement 
to  the  retrogrades  of  earth  in  another  sphere.  Whence 
the  terror  of  discontinuity  of  memory,  if  the  burden  of 
the  past  were  to  be  lifted  off  us,  and  a  new  and  more 
progressive  career  given  to  onr  energy  ?  The  L,inia- 
norans  believed  that  when  unyoked  from  the  inert 
forms  which  had  come  from  their  animal  past,  their 
higher  energy  would  enter  on  a  progress  that  would 
make  all  they  now  did  seem  almost  stagnancy;  and  the 
power  of  remembering  any  past  would  only  mean 
shame  at  its  having  been  theirs. 

It  never  gave  them  pause  to  think  that  what  came 
after  death  was  still  unknown.  They  had  passed  a 
happy  bright  life  upon  the  earth,  free  from  the  pangs 
and  agonies  as  well  as  the  fierce  pleasures,  the  snaky 
involvements  as  well  as  the  passionate  amours,  of  other 
civilisations.  But,  when  the  effort  to  live  had  come  to 
be  so  great  as  to  overbalance  the  compensations  and 
utilities  of  their  life,  then  was  it  no  pang  for  them  to 
leave  it;  for  they  were  scientifically  sure  that  death 
would  be  no  break  in  their  progressive  existence;  if 
anything,  it  was  certain  to  be  an  intensification  of  the 
progress  which  they  loved  most. 

One  of  the  last  of  their  great  series  of  exilings  had 
been  to  cast  out  of  their  midst  a  number  of  men  and 
women  who  never  did  anything  but  long  for  death, 
and  advocated  early  suicide  with  religious  fervour  as 
the  true  and  only  panacea  for  all  ills.  Their  doctrines 
would  have  done  little  harm  to  the  community,  if  they 
had  not  been  rooted  in  practice,  and  often  led  to  tragic 
results.  For  they  came  from  languid,  low-strung  tem- 
peraments, that  felt  disinclined  to  face  the  strain  of  life 


Death  387 

or  to  help  the  advance  of  the  race.     The  current  of 
energy  in  their  ancestry  had  gradually  run  more  and 
more  feebly,  till  it  was  in  them  at  its  lowest  ebb.     It 
was  against  their  grain  to  work,  and  they  did  their 
share  in   the  tasks  of  the  community  with  the  most 
patent  reluctance.     This  alone  would  have  been  reason 
enough  for  their  exile,  inasmuch  as  they  gave  evil  ex- 
ample to  the  youth  around.     But  they  were  subtle  in 
the  use  of  the  tongue  too,  and  could  with  skilful  Jesuitry 
show  how  indolence  was  the  noblest  life.     And  worse 
still,  when  they  were  left  to  their  own  devices,  they 
soon  made  a  violent  end  to  their  feeble  lives,  and  gave 
a  tragic  and  ghastly  appearance  to  death.     Out  into 
Thanasia  or  the  isle  of  death  they  were  one  and  all  de- 
ported, with  enough  goods  and  provisions  to  keep  them 
and  their  descendants  alive,  if  only  they  were  indus- 
trious,    for   thousands   of  years.     But   none   of  them 
would  work,  or  till  the  soil,  or  even  cook  their  food; 
and  one  by  one  they  gave  themselves  up  to  death. 
The  more  ingenious  invented  a  method  of  leaving  life 
which  had  a  certain  grace  if  not  nobility.     They  erected 
great  funeral  pyres  and  connected  them  by  a  slow  fuse 
to  a  huge  battery  that  sent  up  its  rod  into  the  heavens. 
When  a  tempest  threatened,  they  laid  themselves  out 
on  these,  and  when  the  lightning  began  to  flash,  the 
electricity  ran  along  the  wires,  lit  their  fagots,  and  in  a 
few  moments  swept  them  out  of  existence.     It  was  not 
long    before   the   isle   of  death    was  again  left   to  its 
silences,  nothing  but  the  ashes  of  its  former  inhabit- 
ants upon  the  tops  of  numerous  mounds  being  left  to 
tell  that  human  life  had  once  been  there.     No  one  from 
the  rest  of  the  archipelago  seemed  to  care  for  life  upon 
it;    none   ever   landed   there.     The   only  things  that 
marred   the   mortuary   stillness  of  the  isle  were   the 


388  Limanora 

screaming  seabirds,  and  the  tempests  which  drove 
them  thither. 

It  was  better  for  the  cosmos  that  these  emasculate 
weaklings  should  as  soon  as  possible  submit  the  relics 
of  energy  in  them  to  other  conditions  of  being.  But  it 
was  not  well  for  L,imanoran  immaturity  to  have  the 
spectacle  of  self-slaughter  before  them,  or  the  con- 
tagion of  their  death-pyre  romance  and  eloquence 
touch  the  spirit  of  youth.  Moreover  they  took  some 
time  to  resolve  on  death;  and,  in  the  process  of  form- 
ing their  resolution,  it  was  the  natural  habit  of  these 
tame  triflers  with  death  to  put  all  the  energy  they  had 
into  their  tongues.  As  long  as  they  could  talk  heroics 
to  anyone  about  the  deed  they  contemplated,  they  were 
certain  not  to  accomplish  it.  And  romantic  chatter  is 
catching  where  youth  is  still  unbridled  by  reason,  and 
in  the  young  who  had  robuster  wills,  the  results  might 
be  more  prompt. 

It  was  different  with  the  death-scenes  of  men  and 
women  who  had  done  their  duty  by  the  race  and  by 
human  progress,  and  had  worked  out  the  best  possible 
results  from  the  yoking  of  higher  and  lower  energies. 
Theirs  was  a  true  liberation  from  exhausted  lower 
forms.  It  was  not  the  languor  of  the  loftier  element  in 
them,  but  the  exhaustion  of  the  lower,  that  brought 
the  nausea  of  their  hybrid  life.  They  could  feel,  as 
they  looked  back,  how  far  their  higher  or  spiritual 
energy  had  risen  since  their  entrance  into  earthly  ex- 
istence. Every  year  had  seen  them  climb  upwards; 
nearer  and  nearer  had  their  inner  energy  come  towards 
touch  with  that  divine  medium  which  was  in  and  yet 
above  all  life  and  which  in  youth  they  were  conscious 
of  only  in  lofty  moments  of  inspiration.  Such  were 
the  supreme  ascensions  of  life,  when  they  were  capable 


Death  389 

of  the  noblest  actions  and  the  noblest  moral  resolves. 
These  moments  became  more  and  more  frequent  as  they 
grew  older  and  more  progressive,  till  towards  the  close 
of  life  the}-  were  almost  habitual.  Limanoran  youth 
snatched  at  these  supernal  moments  by  the  help  of 
imagination.  Limanoran  age  dwelt  habitually  in  these 
moral  altitudes  that  lay  far  above  mere  passion  or  in- 
stinct. It  was  the  old  amongst  them  who  were  alone 
capable  of  great  creative  spiritual  life.  They  seemed 
to  feel  the  tiding  of  the  subtlest  energy  in  the  universe, 
and  gave  the  impulses  to  most  spiritual  advance. 

Here  and  there  in  other  civilisations  was  bred  a 
nature  that  had  fitful  consciousness  of  this  divine 
medium,  at  times  through  great  creative  imagination, 
but  oftener  through  noble  life.  Such  a  nature  is 
spoken  of  as  inspired;  and  so  far  is  it  true  in  that  it 
has  come  into  communication  with  the  most  refined 
and  most  creative  medium  of  the  universe,  that  through 
which  what  we  call  the  divine  seems  to  work;  but  only 
through  patient  self-moulding  and  development  has  it 
reached  such  a  height  of  nobleness.  Oftenest  in  past 
ages  these  natures  have  found  shelter  in  religion;  for 
in  the  world  ambition  must  make  use  of  the  coarsest 
tools  and  the  grossest  energies  to  reach  its  aim;  and 
the  growth  of  a  loftier  spirit  is  at  once  checked,  and 
noble  aspiration  stifled.  Peace  and  the  shadow  of  de 
votioual  thought  were  the  only  conditions  allowing 
such  a  nature  any  scope  in  a  world  based  upon  war 
and  guided  in  its  search  for  the  right  by  might  alone. 

It  was  different  with  Limanoran  civilisation.  There 
it  was  the  rule,  and  not  the  exception,  to  raise  the 
spiritual  energies  to  sympathy  with  the  diviner  media 
of  the  cosmos,  and  every  condition  favoured  the  pur- 
suit.    Life  began  with  but  a  fitful  consciousness  of  it, 


39°  Limanora 

but  it  grew  more  continuous  and  surer.  The  young 
could  scarcely  distinguish  its  impulses  from  those  of 
their  own  lower  energies.  But  the  old  had  seldom  any 
hesitation  as  to  when  they  were  inspired;  they  seemed 
to  keep  in  touch  with  all  that  is  divine  in  the  world. 
They  needed  no  retreat,  no  religious  s'.elter,  to  nurse 
the  magnetic  sympathy  with  the  divine.  Their  affinity 
to  it  grew  more  and  more  the  essence  of  their  being, 
without  ever  having  to  leave  their  daily  routine  of 
duties.  It  was  this  that  gave  them  their  wisdom  and 
character,  and  that  made  the  young  feel  them  to  be 
almost  a  type  apart  from  the  ordinarily  human.  They 
became  more  distinct  and  striking  in  their  personality 
as  they  grew  older  and  felt  this  affinity.  It  had  come 
to  be  a  common  observation  of  daily  life  that  the  nobler 
the  aspirations  and  the  closer  the  intercourse  with  the 
ethical  media  of  the  cosmos,  the  stronger  and  more 
distinctive  was  the  character;  and  science  was  not  far 
from  the  conclusion  that  on  this  intercourse  depended 
persistence  of  individuality,  and  that  the  higher  they 
reached  in  their  sympathies  with  the  more  refined 
media  of  the  universe,  the  less  need  was  there  of  change 
in  their  personality  at  death,  of  making  alliance  with 
other  lower  energies  when  they  shed  their  inferior  and 
earthl}'  forms  of  energy. 

There  was,  they  felt,  a  noble  isolation  or  apartness 
of  spirit  in  their  old  men  and  women  which  raised  them 
above  common  humanity,  and  made  the  human  body 
seem  an  incongruous  garment  for  their  soul.  They 
lived  above  the  demands  of  their  corporeal  energies 
rather  than  in  them  or  by  them.  In  the  young  the 
two  seemed  blended  together;  it  was  difficult  often  to 
distinguish  in  them  the  movements  of  the  two  types  of 
energy.     But  in   the  old,    though   the  corporeal   had 


Death  391 

been  raised  and  etherealised,  it  seemed  to  hang  on  the 
skirts  of  the  spiritual  and  try  to  drag  it  down;  it  bore 
its  earthly  origination  more  manifestly  on  it  in  com- 
parison with  the  nobler  refinement  of  the  spiritual. 
And  the  longer  they  lived,  the  stronger  the  contrast 
became,  till  at  last  nature  herself  seemed  to  demand 
their  eternal  divorce.  Euthanasia  at  a  certain  stage  in 
the  development  of  L,imanoran  life  came  to  be  not  so 
much  a  privilege  as  a  holy  duty.  To  liberate  the 
higher  energy  from  its  alliance  with  the  lower,  to  die, 
was  but  the  next  and  most  natural  stage  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  life.  Even  the  family,  who  would  feel  the 
bereavement  most  in  the  loss  of  their  wise  help  and 
guidance,  acquiesced  gladly,  feeling  that  the  liberation 
must  mean  a  nobler  career  for  the  released  spiritual 
energy.  Thus  it  was  that  on  Doomalona  they  used 
the  music  of  creation;  they  gave  utterance  to  their 
feeling  that  death  was  not  dissolution  but  creation, 
that  the  retrogression  of  the  body  was  an  advance  for 
the  higher  energy,  the  truer  self.  The  sense  of  decay 
or  degeneration  was  quite  absent  from  their  thoughts. 
It  was  a  triumphal  farewell;  for  they  were  convinced 
that  for  the  liberated  it  was  the  noblest  deed  of  all  to 
die,  the  very  crown  of  all  their  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 


AN   EPIDEMIC 


THOUGHT  by  thought  I  ejected  my  old  view  of 
death  from  my  mind.  I  could  not  forget  the 
scene  of  triumph  which  had  been  enacted  on  the  hill 
of  farewells;  and  the  chanting  that  rilled  through  it 
haunted  my  imagination,  bringing  a  sense  of  satisfac- 
tion, if  not  joy.  I  got  into  the  habit  of  winging  my 
exercise-flights  towards  Doomalona.  I  was  there  with 
Thyriel  when  dawn  struck  the  world  into  gladness  and 
music.  There  were  we  together  to  see  the  flaming 
picture  the  set  of  sun  drew  on  Lilaroma.  No  platform 
on  the  island  so  caught  the  inspiration  of  the  coming 
or  departing  orb.  None,  I  came  to  feel,  was  so  fitted 
for  the  hegira  of  earth-weary  souls.  No  such  launch- 
ing-ground  was  there  for  the  voyage  through  infinity. 
As  I  frequented  it  in  my  leisure  moments,  there  grew 
into  my  system  the  sense  that  death  was  not  so  much 
an  end  as  a  beginning,  not  a  dissolution,  but  a  birth 
and  perhaps  a  forgetting.  More  and  more  was  the 
idea  of  it  a  nucleus  of  delight;  and  the  old  melancholy 
and  sorrow,  making  it  a  burden  and  a  terror  for  the 
mind,  disappeared. 

As  a  proselyte  to  the  new  feeling  I  was  eager  to  talk 
of  it  and  make  much  of  its  surprises.     Not  with  Thyriel 

392 


An  Epidemic  393 

and  1115'  proparents  alone  did  I  discuss  its  varied  aspects; 
I  could  listen  by  the  hour  to  their  teachings.  But  it 
brought  me  into  intercourse  with  many  whom  I  had 
scarcely  seen  before  except  in  the  course  of  my  educa- 
tion as  I  wandered  through  the  various  halls.  I  was 
astonished  to  find  how  often  they  sought  opportunity 
to  talk  to  me.  They  drew  me  aside  as  if  they  had  im- 
portant business  with  me,  and  confidentially  imparted 
their  views  of  death  which  I  had  heard  a  hundred 
times  from  others,  until  I  grew  weary  of  their  chatter, 
for  I  wished  to  talk  myself.  But  they  would  not  allow 
me  to  break  in  on  their  everlasting  torrent  of  babble; 
even  Thyriel  could  not  endure  my  interruptions. 
Though  I  never  grew  weary  of  her  talk,  I  could  not 
restrain  the  desire  to  have  my  say,  too.  There  was  no 
subject  on  which  we  could  not  soliloquise  by  the  hour, 
but  we  preferred  to  talk  of  death,  the  freshest  and  most 
joyous  of  topics.  And  every  other  youth  was  just  as 
eager  to  deliver  his  opinions  to  me  and  to  everybody 
else.  However  busy  they  might  be  with  the  task  in 
hand,  off  they  would  break  from  it  for  colloquy,  which 
soon  spun  itself  into  the  soliloquy  of  the  stronger  lungs 
and  the  most  enduring  tongue.  Everyone  seemed  to 
comport  himself  as  if  his  views  wrere  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance to  the  world.  They  all  seemed  bursting  with 
the  obvious;  out  it  must  come  or  they  would  die.  In 
every  other  corner  I  would  find  two  or  three  debating 
with  faces  all  aglow,  sometimes  in  the  most  confidential 
whispers;  approaching  to  listen,  I  would  find  their 
topic  trite  and  stale  as  last  year's  gossip;  the  speaker 
was  pressing  home  on  his  hearers  in  a  voice  of  por- 
tentous awe  what  no  one  would  think  of  disputing. 

The  elders  interfered  and  tried  by  patient  advice  to 
stop  this  tempest  of  loquacity.     Hurrying  from  post  to 


394  Limanora 

post  they  tried  to  keep  the  young  at  their  work,  but  it 
was  an  endless  task.  On  would  go  the  glib  current  as 
soon  as  their  attention  was  turned  elsewhere.  Matters 
began  to  look  serious,  for  the  work  of  the  community 
was  being  neglected.  The  ordinary  services  of  life 
were  barely  performed.  Little  or  no  progress  could 
be  made  in  such  a  state  of  affairs.  Indeed,  it  became 
manifest  that  the  main  aim  of  the  race,  progress,  would 
soon  be  forgotten,  and  retrogression  supervene.  The 
faces  of  the  elders  became  graver  every  day;  their 
advice  was  unheeded,  their  example  unfollowed.  Bab- 
ble, babble,  babble,  on  rolled  the  fluent  river  of  talk, 
as  if  the  island  had  been  in  the  midst  of  Western  civil- 
isation. When  I  closed  my  eyes  so  loud  and  empty 
sounded  the  magpie  babel  I  could  easily  fancy  myself 
back  again  in  my  native  land,  and  believe  that  I  had 
dreamt  my  recent  years  and  wakened  again  in  Christ- 
endom. 

The  ominous  gravity  of  the  elders  dispelled  the 
fancy.  They  looked  as  if  doomsday  were  near,  and 
were  often  heard  to  say  that  something  must  be  done. 
For  the  talkativeness  was  bringing  other  vices  in  its 
train, — vanity,  flippancy,  carelessness,  and  want  of 
reason.  The  torrent  of  eloquence  was  spreading  wider 
every  day  and  seemed  to  have  broken  down  the  pales 
of  their  long  centuries  of  civilisation.  No  one  was 
capable  of  stopping  it  either  by  precept  or  example. 

At  last  in  their  despair  the  elders  appealed  to  the 
medicants.  Nothing  like  the  phenomenon  had  oc- 
curred within  the  memory  of  the  oldest;  nothing  in 
the  records  could  be  found  that  in  the  least  resembled 
it  since  the  series  of  exilings  had  been  completed.  At 
the  periodical  inspection,  the  medicants  made  a  more 
minute  investigation  of  the  systems  of  the  youth  and 


An  Epidemic  395 

turned  their  attention  especially  to  the  left  side  of  the 
brain,  which  is  the  great  originator  and  controller  of 
speech.  In  a  few  they  could  see  evidences  of  in- 
flammation and  morbid  secretion  in  the  brain-tissue 
of  this  region;  in  most  cases  nothing  out  of  the  com- 
mon revealed  itself  to  their  most  recent  lavolans.  So 
they  took  careful  electrographs  of  the  left  side  of  the 
brain  of  most  of  them,  and  when  they  put  these  under 
their  strongest  clirolans,  it  became  plain  that  all  of  them 
were  in  a  diseased  condition. 

The  elders  were  now  convinced  that  they  were  on 
the  right  track  of  investigation,  and  all  the  young  peo- 
ple who  had  shown  symptoms  of  the  passion  for  elo- 
quence were  isolated  and  brought  hourly  under  the 
inspection  of  the  medicauts.  Moving  electrographs 
of  the  thought-processes  in  the  diseased  parts  were 
taken  daily  by  means  of  modifications  of  the  lavolan; 
and  under  still  more  powerful  clirolans,  made  for  the 
purpose,  these  revealed  a  microbe  of  extraordinary 
minuteness  at  work  in  the  tissue.  Having  found  the 
source  of  the  mischief,  they  set  themselves  to  remove 
it.  At  first  they  put  the  patient  into  profound  sleep, 
and,  trephining  the  skull,  they  cleansed  away  under 
the  clirolan  all  traces  of  the  parasite  and  its  debris. 
What  they  removed  they  carefully  preserved  and 
analysed;  then,  having  found  the  chemical  elements 
of  the  mischievous  spawn  and  their  debris,  they  repro- 
duced the  mixture  as  a  cure  of  the  new  and  singular 
disease.  For  a  time  this  was  administered  as  an  in- 
ternal medicine;  but  finding  that  it  injured  other 
nerve-centres  besides  those  that  they  intended  to  affect, 
they  resolved  to  apply  it  only  locally,  and  soon  learned 
how  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  trephining  the  skull. 
They  invented  an  electric  syringe  and  injector,  which 


396  Limanora 

caused  the  mixture  to  penetrate  through  the  skull  into 
the  part  of  the  brain  affected,  thus  sterilising  the  tissues 
that  had  to  do  with  speech  and  making  them  unattrac- 
tive as  a  feeding-ground  for  the  microbe  of  loquacity. 

The  plague  soon  vanished  and  the  babel  ceased. 
There  was  comparative  silence  throughout  the  island. 
Only  such  words  were  spoken  as  were  essential  and 
relevant  to  the  business  in  hand.  It  was,  indeed,  ac- 
cepted as  the  surest  mark  of  the  sanity  of  a  nature  that 
it  was  never  betrayed  into  speech  unless  that  which 
conveyed  necessary  information,  forceful  reasoning,  or 
fresh  thought.  The  trite  was  avoided  as  mephitic 
vapours  or  an  exhausted  atmosphere  would  be.  The 
utterance  of  truisms  immediately  led  to  a  microscopic 
examination  of  the  brain  of  the  speaker  in  expectation 
of  finding  disease  there.  The  habit  of  expression 
merely  for  its  own  sake  and  not  for  what  it  expressed, 
for  its  beauty  or  wit  or  pungency,  was  considered  a 
sure  indication  of  a  diseased  or  morbid  condition  of  the 
brain-tissue,  and  the  sufferer  was  at  once  isolated  for 
treatment,  lest  he  should  spread  the  contagion. 

For  the  whole  phenomenon  was  scientifically  investi- 
gated, and  precautions  were  carefully  taken  against  a 
return  of  the  plague.  It  had  been  noticed  that,  after 
any  age  of  exceptional  progress,  there  generally  oc- 
curred some  epidemic  connected  with  the  brain-tissues 
or  nerve-centres,  sometimes  appearing  in  excess  of  emo- 
tion, sometimes  in  various  forms  of  feebleness  of 
thought.  It  was  due,  they  found,  to  the  comparative 
exhaustion  of  the  brain  and  nerves  by  exceptional 
strain  upon  them.  As  long  as  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
new  ideas  and  rapid  advance  inspired  the  people,  they 
worked  with  a  will,  nor  ever  thought  of  sparing  any 
part  of  their  system.     The  more  mature  amongst  them 


An  Epidemic  397 

knew  how  to  bridle  this  passion  for  work,  and  took 
the  necessary  precautions  against  its  evil  effects;  from 
experience  they  had  found  out  that  they  needed  more 
sustenance  and  more  sleep  in  such  periods,  and  they 
knew  almost  by  instinct  when  to  rest  and  how  often, 
and  what  halls  of  sustenance  and  medication  they 
should  frequent.  The  young  had  not  their  instincts 
checked  or  confirmed  by  experience,  and  carried  even 
the  best  of  movements  and  impulses  to  abuse.  In 
spite  of  inspection  and  superintendence  they  ignored 
the  rules  laid  down  for  their  guidance,  and  took  their 
inspiration  to  work  as  better  than  the  wisdom  of  their 
elders,  knowing  that  progress  was  the  ideal  and  law  of 
their  race,  and  thinking  that  everything  done  for  pro- 
gress was  right. 

It  was  thus  the  young  and  immature  who  generally 
suffered  from  these  epidemics.  The  impulse  of  their 
enthusiasm  carried  them  far  beyond  the  limits  of  fer- 
tility of  their  tissues,  and  the  ebullience  of  their  delight, 
as  they  saw  the  work  grow  before  their  eyes,  obscured 
from  them  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  their  powers. 
They  grew  oblivious  to  everything  but  the  end  they 
had  immediately  in  view,  and  thus  became  short- 
sighted in  their  enthusiasm  for  progress;  they  sacrificed 
the  demands  of  the  future  for  the  sake  of  the  present, 
and  it  was  difficult  for  even  the  elders  at  the  medical 
inspection  to  get  at  the  real  state  of  the  case,  such  an 
appearance  of  new  vigour  did  the  impetuosity  of  their 
passion  and  the  tumult  in  their  blood  give  to  their  sys- 
tems. Only  when  the  wandering  germs  of  emotional 
disease  had  fixed  on  the  exhausted  tissue  did  the  result 
become  apparent. 

The  wide  area  and  serious  effects  of  the  plague  of 
verbosity  awakened  the  medical  elders  to  the  necessity 


398  Limanora 

of  special  precautions.  A  section  of  them  was  organised 
as  a  medical  police  to  guard  against  the  invasion  of  such 
pestilences,  and  to  prevent  such  exhaustion  of  youthful 
tissues  as  would  invite  the  vagrant  germs  or  fail  to  re- 
pel their  attacks.  A  science  was  specialised  for  this 
purpose, — the  pathology  of  epidemic  emotions;  and  a 
special  art  grew  up  to  correspond, — the  hygiene  and 
therapeutics  of  emotional  infection. 

The  elders  who  attended  to  this  periodically  made 
careful  examination  of  all  the  tissue  of  the  immature 
that  had  to  do  with  emotion  or  with  any  crude  spiritual 
moods  inapt  to  the  control  of  reason  and  will.  And  it 
was  astonishing  how  rapid  was  the  growth  of  the  new 
science  and  art  in  their  hands.  Delicate  instruments 
were  invented  responding  to  the  presence  even  in 
the  air  of  deleterious  germs  that  tended  to  settle  in  the 
nerve-centres.  Still  finer  instruments  revealed  the 
state  of  the  tissues  underneath  the  skull.  The  symp- 
toms of  every  disease  of  the  emotions  were  classified, 
and  the  means  of  checking  each  was  investigated  scien- 
tifically. Before  the  next  period  of  exceptional  flor- 
escence and  harvest  arrived,  the  hygiene  of  all  the 
epidemics  that  had  been  known  to  follow  on  ages  of 
great  exertion  was  completely  organised;  and  it  was 
chiefly  an  art  of  prevention  rather  than  of  cure.  Pre- 
cautions were  taken  by  the  new  section  of  the  medicants 
against  the  abuse  of  the  enthusiasm  natural  to  such  a 
period;  they  examined  the  nerve-tissues  of  the  imma- 
ture almost  daily,  and  pointed  out  everyone  that  was 
getting  overworked,  and  the  remedies  that  should  be 
adopted  for  checking  the  evil.  The  result  was  that  no 
abuse  could  proceed  for  longer  than  a  day,  and  no 
moral  or  emotional  epidemic  unless  of  the  mildest  type 
could  settle  in  the  community. 


An  Epidemic  399 

What  roused  them  to  such  a  step  as  the  foundation 
of  a  new  science  and  art  was  the  seriousness  with  which 
they  viewed  the  last  plague,  that  of  loquacity.     In  the 
series  ofexilings  no  evil  had  given  them  such  trouble 
as   that  of  oratory,  and  they  were  afraid  lest   it  was 
about  to  return  in  all  its  virulence.    At  first  they  feared 
this  plague  to  be  a  case  of  atavism;  for  those  whom  it 
attacked   earliest    were   descendants   of   ancestors,    or 
closely  related  to  families,  that  had  been  famous  in  the 
far  past  for  power  of  expression.     But  it  soon  spread  to 
strains  of  blood  that  had  been  marked  by  great  reti- 
cence,  if  not  taciturnity,  and  ultimately  it  was  com- 
pletely  impartial    in    its   choice   of  victims.       It   was 
manifest,  however,  that  those  who  had  ancestral  oratory 
in  the  blood  were  first  open  to  the  attacks  of  the  plague 
and  were  most  difficult  to  cure;  and  the  phenomenon 
sent  alarm  to  the  very  heart  of  the  community.     All 
the  mature  citizens  and  especially  the  elders  looked 
graver  than  I  had  ever  seen  them  look,  even  at  the 
prospect  of  Choktroo's  invasion;  they  came  nearer  to 
the  appearance  of  dejection  than  I  had  imagined  they 
could  come. 

The  whole  matter  drove  my  thoughts  to  work.  When 
I  reflected  on  the  occasion,  the  attitude  my  mind  had 
been  accustomed  to  in  my  forgotten  life  returned,  and 
it  seemed  to  me  as  if  there  had  been  a  storm  over  no- 
thing. Talkativeness  had  been  one  of  the  commonest 
features  of  the  men  and  women  I  had  known  in  Europe; 
and  loquacity  was  as  little  noticed  as  a  red  head  or  a 
pug  nose.  Indeed  the  chatterbox  was  ranked  among 
the  innocents  who  did  little  harm  except  to  their  own 
reputations.  It  became  a  complete  puzzle  to  me,  when 
I  saw  the  horror  with  which  the  Limanorans  looked  on 


400  Limanora 

oratory.  Had  it  not  been  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
arts  of  Christendom  ?  Were  not  the  great  orators  of 
my  own  nation  looked  upon  as  little  short  of  inspired, 
and  their  statues  placed  in  the  noblest  niche  of  our 
temple  of  fame  ?  Did  we  not  rush  by  the  thousand  to 
hear  any  one  of  them,  when  he  was  about  to  perform, 
and  stand  breathless  by  the  hour,  laying  up  for  our- 
selves fatigue  and  faintness  and  asphyxia,  merely  for 
the  delight  of  hanging  on  his  lips?  In  life  he  roused 
hurricanes  of  enthusiasm;  and  when  he  die.d  thousands 
who  had  never  known  him  personally  followed  him 
mourning  to  the  tomb,  and  on  the  most  revered  page 
of  our  literature  was  his  name  written.  What  could  be 
the  meaning  of  so  hearty  a  detestation  of  so  noble  an 
art  on  the  part  of  this  progressive  race  ? 

As  usual  I  had  not  long  to  wait  for  a  solution.  My 
bewilderment  had  already  stirred  the  curiosity  of  my 
proparents  and  Thyriel;  and  they  had  been  watching 
my  thoughts  for  some  time  before  I  put  my  questions, 
simple  enough  for  my  young  comrade  and  betrothed  to 
answer.  She  spent  a  whole  afternoon  that  was  de- 
voted to  flight-exercise,  in  discussing  and  solving  my 
difficulties,  and  the  struggle  ended  in  strengthening 
my  admiration  for  this  noble  people. 

Their  abhorrence  of  the  vice  of  oratory  was  not  the 
growth  of  any  sudden  revolution,  or  the  unreasoning 
prejudice  often  originating  amongst  a  long-established 
nation  in  some  great  personal  hatred  or  fear  now  buried 
in  oblivion.  It  was  the  result  of  ages  of  the  most 
patient  scientific  investigation.  And  it  found  its  way 
into  practice  so  slowly  that  the  steps  up  to  the  final  one 
are  scarcely  noticeable  on  the  pages  of  their  history. 
It  had  an  inborn  prejudice  in  favour  of  oratory  to  com- 
bat, all  the  deeper  that  it  could  not  explain  itself  or  its 


An  Epidemic  401 

origin.  The  reputation  of  some  of  the  ablest  and  most 
influential  sections  of  the  community  was  based  upon 
the  art.  The  orators  of  the  nation  had  acquired  a  fame 
almost  greater  than  that  of  the  soldiers.  They  had 
been  its  leaders  and  founders;  they  had  developed  and 
mastered  its  politics;  they  had  moulded  the  people  at 
certain  crises  in  their  history  into  a  unit}7.  Their  art 
had  been  enrolled  for  ages  amongst  the  noblest  they 
had.  It  was  the  only  civilised  force  which  could  move 
great  masses  to  enthusiasm,  or  fuse  their  varied  pur- 
poses and  thoughts  together  to  form  a  single  ideal  and 
aim.  It  was  the  only  means  their  statesmen  had 
had  for  accomplishing  their  schemes,  the  only  step- 
ping-stones by  which  their  lawyers  and  preachers  and 
politicians  could  rise  to  fame.  It  seemed  for  ages  a 
hopeless  task  to  unseat  it  from  its  place  in  their  civilis- 
ation, or  eradicate  the  prejudice  in  its  favour  from  the 
people's  minds. 

The  wisest  Iyimanorans  had  watched  its  evil  in- 
fluence through  many  ages;  although  they  had  often 
themselves  to  make  use  of  it  for  their  purposes  of  re- 
form and  although  some  of  the  best  men  had  been  suc- 
cessful in  its  employment,  yet  they  were  certain  that  it 
sapped  the  finer  sense  of  truth.  So  easily  could  the 
orator  persuade  a  crowd  to  accept  all  he  said  as  true 
and  noble  that  he  came  to  think  there  was  little  differ- 
ence between  the  true  and  the  false,  the  noble  and  the 
ignoble;  his  own  aim  was  all  that  was  of  significance, 
and  it  was,  however  selfish  or  mean,  just  as  good  as 
anybody  else's  aim.  He  needed  as  little  to  persuade 
himself  of  the  justice  of  an  evil  cause,  provided  it  was 
his  own,  as  to  persuade  an  assembly.  He  had  but 
to   isolate   certain    facts   and    phases,   and  what  were 

antagonistic   to    them    fell   into   shadow;    the   unjust 
26 


4-02  Limanora 

course  began  to  appear  just,  and  those  who  opposed 
it  were  the  enemies  of  justice  and  of  the  orator.  It 
mattered  not  what  side  he  took,  if  only  it  stirred  his 
interest;  he  could  rouse  thousands  to  enthusiasm  for  it 
by  touching  their  emotions  and  awakening  the  passions 
that  were  connected  with  their  own  self-interest.  This 
power  of  moving  great  masses  to  whatever  tune  he 
pleased  gave  the  orator  a  sense  of  omnipotence;  after 
a  stirring  speech  he  felt  like  a  Jove  who  held  in  his 
hand  the  destinies  of  the  world.  Happily  for;  the  wel- 
fare of  the  state,  the  tongue-doughty  was  hopelessly 
incapable  when  he  turned  to  practice;  he  could  not 
organise  the  crusade  he  had  preached;  everything  he 
did  with  his  crowd  of  followers  tumbled  to  pieces  as 
soon  as  he  had  to  do  anything  further  than  speak;  a 
few  days  or  even  hours  of  cool  action  revealed  the  hol- 
lowness  of  his  cause  or  his  power;  the  omnipotent  Jove 
of  yesterday  appeared  the  skulking  slave  of  today. 
The  only  crusades  that  ever  prospered  under  his  in- 
fluence were  those  which  aimed  at  destruction;  for  the 
work  of  destruction  is  brief  and  sharp;  it  needs  but  the 
passion  of  the  moment  to  accomplish  it;  and  the  love 
of  demolition  is  the  most  primitive  of  all  savage  de- 
sires, and  the  most  unbridled  when  let  loose;  its  own 
action  as  it  proceeds  kindles  into  a  conflagration  the 
fires  that  give  it  strength.  Creation  is  a  calm  and 
gradual  process,  the  last  conquest  of  the  human  mind, 
as  it  is  the  highest  function  of  the  energy  of  the  cosmos. 
The  wrecking  omnipotence  of  oratory  is  parted  from 
this  by  the  eternity  of  cosmic  development;  it  is  kin 
with  the  clashing  of  worlds  and  systems  that  may  come 
before  the  birth  of  a  universe;  but  it  is  as  opposite 
in  nature  to  the  slow  building  up  of  a  world  and  the 
slow  evolution  of  its  life-energy  as  hell  is  to  heaven. 


An  Epidemic  4°3 

The  barrenness  of  the  art  in  all  that  would  develop 
humanity  struck  even  the  less  mature  minds  of  L,ima- 
nora  forcibly  as  soon  as  vast  schemes  of  reform  like 
socialism  began  to  be  discussed.  These  schemes  meant 
the  devastation  or  the  dismantling  of  existing  institu- 
tions and  systems  of  life.  A  plague  of  demagogues 
spread  throughout  the  nation.  Hitherto  orator  had 
neutralised  orator  as  in  a  debate.  Now  it  was  the  idle 
and  indolent  who  grew  most  tongue-valiant.  They, 
who  had  before  been  so  discredited,  now  found  them- 
selves on  the  way  to  fame.  They,  who  had  before  been 
able  to  gather  only  a  few  embeggared  discontents  at 
the  street-corners  to  listen,  and  perhaps  to  sniff  at  their 
eloquence,  could  now  stir  masses  to  action.  They  had 
been  despised  even  by  their  out-at-elbows  followers  for 
their  impotence  in  face  of  the  problem  of  making  a  bare 
living  for  themselves.  Now  they  saw  before  them 
place  and  power,  fortune  and  fame,  and  all  through  this 
poor  member  of  theirs  that  had  not  been  able  to  earn 
enough  to  lick.  Beggarly  grovellers,  none  so  poor  as 
not  to  scorn  them,  they  were  now  omnipotent,  with 
all  the  work  of  devastation  before  them  that  these  new 
vast  political  schemes  implied.  When  the  revolution 
was  in  full  blaze,  they  were  at  their  best,  they  thought. 
But  it  was  just  at  this  point  they  found  their  limit. 
The  conflagration  they  had  kindled  their  eloquence 
failed  to  control  or  even  guide;  it  swept  past  them 
through  institutions  and  sections  of  the  community 
that  they  specially  favoured;  and  at  last  even  they, 
many  of  them,  fell  themselves  victims  to  its  undiscrim- 
inating  ravage.  And,  when  it  had  burned  itself  out, 
not  one  of  them  but  skulked  away  in  fear,  unable  to 
face  the  task  of  building  up  again.  Then  it  was  the 
man  of  action  that  stepped  in,  the  silent,  masterful 


404  Limanora 

disciplinarian,  moulded  in  war  and  accustomed  to  no 
other  means  of  solving  human  problems  than  war;  he  it 
was  who  reaped  the  dragon's- teeth  harvest  sown  by 
tongue-bravery:  he  seized  all  the  glory  and  place  and 
fortune  that  the  mob-spaniels  had  thought  within  their 
grasp.  Some  of  their  ancient  folk-maxims  embodied 
this  experience:  The  breath  of  the  demagogue  blows 
the  warrior  to  his  fortune;  The  mouth  of  the  orator  is 
the  bauqueting-chamber  of  the  soldier;  Tempests  of 
eloquence  and  torrents  of  blood;  Spout,  vain  tongue, 
you  invite  your  tyrant;  Sow  a  country  with  the  teeth 
of  haranguers  and  they  will  come  up  the  swords  of 
despots;  Loquacity  is  eaten  up  by  her  son  pugnacity. 

In  spite  of  the  fear  of  the  art  indicated  in  such  folk- 
lore, it  continued  to  flourish;  for  the  upper  classes, 
who  delighted  in  war,  flattered  themselves  that  they 
would  ever  be  the  best  orators,  and  it  is  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  human  nature  to  run  to  tongue.  Not  till 
the  age  of  unbridled  freedom  of  speech  did  they  begin 
to  change  their  opinions.  Then  were  they  easily  out- 
faced and  out-harangued  by  any  idler  of  the  poverty- 
stricken  districts.  Even  in  their  own  assemblies  they 
were  no  match  for  the  spouters  from  the  slums;  with 
all  their  high-toned  irony  and  scornful  superiority,  they 
were  beaten  into  silence  at  the  public  palavers;  they 
were  mere  stammerers  beside  the  glib  orators  of  the  un- 
washed. This  age  of  tongue-exploits  was  naturally  an 
age  of  single  ideas,  too.  When  their  energy  had  gone 
into  speech,  they  had  none  left  for  thoughts.  One-idea 
crusades  became  the  order  of  the  day.  Every  tongue- 
quixote  had  his  scheme  wherewith  he  would  sweep  all 
evils  out  of  life.  He  was  so  enamoured  of  his  own  that 
he  could  not  bear  to  listen  to  any  other.  And  therein 
lay  safety. 


An  Epidemic  405 

But  there  came  a  time  when  the  wordy  bravos  joined 
forces;  one  vast  socialistic  scheme  included  all  theirs. 
The  institutions  of  the  island  were  to  be  wiped  out,  and 
something  undefined  that  was  to  make  men  equal  and 
prosperous  and  happy  was  to  be  put  in  their  place. 
Their  tongues  now  wagged  in  unison  with  wonderful 
velocity.  Each  was  still  for  his  own  special  construct- 
ive scheme,  but  they  were  at  one  in  their  scheme  of 
demolition;  they  must  have  a  clear  space  to  build  on, 
and  their  ideal  was  the  same,  to  make  all  equal  and 
happy.  The  babel  of  eloquence  drowned  the  sounds 
of  other  industry.  Another  revolution  was  almost 
within  earshot. 

Some  of  the  wiser  hearts  of  Limauora  anticipated  the 
danger,  and  saw  that  it  would  be  better  to  give  the  dis- 
contented all  than  to  let  destruction  ravage  unmuzzled 
again.  The  whole  of  the  property  of  the  island  was 
estimated,  land,  houses,  furniture,  and  luxuries;  and 
money  equivalent  to  its  full  value  was  handed  over  to 
the  malcontent  socialists  to  divide  amongst  themselves, 
provided  they  migrated  to  another  island.  The  offer 
was  readily  accepted;  for  it  was  clear  that  nothing 
would  then  be  left  in  Limanora  worth  plundering.  The 
ships  landed  the  enraptured  equalisers  of  human  goods 
with  their  belongings  on  the  shore  of  their  new  Eden, 
and  returned. 

When  the  decks  were  cleared,  and  a  census  was 
taken  of  all  that  remained,  it  was  found  that  the  island 
in  purging  out  the  socialists  was  rid  of  the  plague  of 
orators.  The  price  they  paid  for  their  deliverance  was 
small  indeed,  they  felt.  They  soon  recreated  the 
wealth  they  had  surrendered.  Everyone  grew  ashamed 
and  afraid  of  anything  that  approached  to  oratory. 
Eloquence  became  a  word  of  evil  omen.     To  prate  was 


4°6  Limanora 

now  the  greatest  offence  against  the  commonwealth. 
And  for  generations  there  reigned  comparative  silence 
and  complete  peace  over  the  land. 

In  the  series  of  purgations  every  remaining  trace  of 
tongue-ambition  was  swept  out.  Much  of  the  flatter- 
ing kind  was  found  to  have  migrated  with  the  lecher- 
ous; much  of  the  haughty  kind  with  the  aristocratic 
warriors;  but  most  of  it  went  with  the  liars.  There 
remained  a  horror  of  all  prating  and  tongue-valiance, 
and  this  repressed  every  atavistic  tendency  in  that 
direction  that  appeared. 


CHAPTER   V 


LITERATURE 


ALL  mere  word-mongering  was  to  this  people  an 
immoral  thing,  a  shameless  waste  of  the  tissue 
and  energy  that  were  needed  by  the  evolution  of  the 
race,  an  offence  against  its  aim  and  ideal,  its  progress 
upwards  through  the  cosmic  grades.  They  were  per- 
suaded that  it  was  a  base  substitution  of  the  shows  of 
life  for  the  reality  to  make  an  art  of  words  which  should 
absorb  the  imagination  and  the  skill  of  hundreds  for 
their  whole  lifetime.  They  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  attention  to  the  appearance  and  ornamentation  of 
a  subject  to  the  neglect  of  its  true  spirit.  Into  the  very 
heart  and  purpose  of  life  every  worker  must  penetrate. 
His  relation  to  the  progress  of  the  race  must  be  clearly 
shown.  No  work  that  took  up  any  of  the  time  or 
energy  of  anyone  of  the  community  was  to  be  useless 
or  unfertile. 

But  this  did  not  mean  that  language  was  allowed  to 
take  care  of  itself.  It  was  one  of  the  most  diligently 
tended  blossoms  of  human  capacity.  No  word  or 
phrase,  whether  spontaneous  or  invented,  was  allowed 
to  take  root  without  the  fiat  of  the  mature  community. 
Language  was  more  a  public  institution  than  even  gov- 
ernment or  justice  in  a  people  whose  every  member 

407 


408  Limanora 

was  able  to  be  a  law  to  himself.  It  was  not  only  the 
great  channel  of  communication;  it  was  the  medium 
and  garment  of  every  thought.  If  it  became  corrupt, 
how  could  the  mind  itself  be  saved  from  its  contagion  ? 
If  it  acquired  a  false  tone,  how  could  the  falsity  fail  to 
enter  into  the  very  spirit  of  the  men  and  women  ?  It 
was  the  guardian  of  law  and  truth;  it  was  the  key  to 
the  human  heart;  it  was  the  ether,  the  medium,  in 
which  the  human  mind  lived,  moved,  and  had  its 
being. 

How  could  such  a  potent  factor  in  human  progress 
be  left  to  the  caprices  of  accident,  or  of  single  persons, 
or  even  of  a  family  ?  It  had  more  influence  over  the 
spirit  than  all  their  sciences  put  together,  for  it  was 
more  universal  in  its  use  than  any  one  of  them;  and  it 
subtly  tinged  all  of  them,  whilst  it  was  almost  the 
breath  of  the  mind  which  dealt  with  them.  It  might 
be  the  life  or  the  poison  of  the  whole  race.  He  who 
was  the  sole  guide  of  language  would  be  the  master  of 
Limanora,  not  in  the  shallow  sense  of  a  ruler,  but  in 
that  of  the  complete  arbiter  of  its  destinies.  He  would 
be  the  despot  of  the  Limanoran  mind  and  might  subtly 
throw  it  back  centuries,  if  it  pleased  him. 

A  people  so  experienced  and  wise  as  this  would  have 
ruined  the  whole  ideal  of  their  existence  if  they  had 
allowed  the  most  public  of  the  functions  of  their  civil- 
isation to  move  at  the  caprice  of  individuals.  As  soon 
as  the  purgation  of  the  race  had  been  completed  it  be- 
came plain  that  their  language  must  be  purified  too. 
Hundreds  of  words  and  phrases  and  idioms  had  had 
soaked  into  them  the  infiltrations  of  the  evil  minds 
which  were  now  banished.  Worse  than  all,  language 
had  been  the  commonest  and  safest  ambush  of  malignity 
and  deceit;   it  had  been  a  perpetual  trap  for  the  inno- 


Literature  409 

cent  and  unwary;  it  had  been  a  labyrinth,  in  which 
even  the  ablest  and  purest-minded  often  lost  their 
way  when  following  the  lead  of  some  great  and  noble 
thought. 

The  first  aim  of  the  elders  was  to  clear  it  of  coarse  or 
vulgar  suggestion.  But,  as  they  proceeded,  they  found 
their  horizon  widen;  and  the  intricacies,  ambiguities, 
and  pitfalls  showed  themselves  the  most  serious  evils 
of  all.  It  became  absolutely  necessary,  if  they  were  to 
have  a  clear  and  unrefractive  medium  of  expression,  to 
give  a  definite  meaning  to  every  word,  and  to  have  one 
word  for  every  meaning  or  shade  of  meaning.  The 
task  extended  itself  through  years.  But  then  they 
knew  that,  until  it  was  thoroughly  done,  their  science 
would  be  like  shifting  clouds,  and  their  progress  would 
be  over  quicksands.  If  their  language  was  treacherous, 
their  civilisation  was  but  a  mirage.  So  they  toiled  on 
sustained  by  the  hope  that  they  were  making  sure  their 
footsteps  in  the  pursuit  of  truth. 

When  their  work  was  done,  they  found  it  was  only 
begun.  For  it  took  a  generation  to  make  the  new  and 
purified  language  the  natural  medium  of  the  whole 
people,  and  by  that  time  new  sub-meanings  had  crept 
into  most  of  the  common  words,  and  new  shadings  had 
discoloured  most  of  the  everyday  phraseology.  The 
new  and  less  used  words,  and  the  purely  technical  and 
scientific  words  stood  where  they  were.  Everything 
that  lived  had  shifted  ground.  Everything  that  was 
purely  artificial  and  had  taken  no  root  had  remained 
as  it  began,  had  been  in  short  petrified.  It  was  clear 
that  with  living  language  there  must  be  perpetual  vigil- 
ance and  superintendence.  And  the  whole  people  had 
to  become  a  council  for  the  preservation  of  its  purity' 
and  transl  licence.     Every  citizen  set  a  watch  upon  his 


4IQ  Limanora 

words,  as  he  used  them  from  day  to  day  or  as  he  heard 
them  used,  and  reported  any  drift  in  the  sense  and  any 
new  shade  of  meaning;  and  after  deliberation  in  council 
and  careful  consideration  by  the  elders  a  new  form  was 
moulded  for  each  new  signification.  This  form  had  to 
pass  the  ordeal  of  universal  use  for  some  time,  and  if  it 
stood  the  test,  it  was  finally  accepted  as  part  of  the 
language. 

Nor  was  it  ever  forgotten  that  the  ear  and  the  sense 
of  harmony  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  acceptance  of 
a  word  as  its  fitness  to  express  an  idea.  Harsh  sounds 
wasted  valuable  tissue  as  much  as  unmeaning  syllables. 
The  verbal  atrocities  of  Western  science  would  have 
made  the  Ljmanorans  shudder.  Dissonance  was  an 
offence  against  the  spirit  of  harmony  which  pervaded 
the  cosmos;  it  was  as  easy  to  form  a  melodious  word  or 
phrase  as  one  that  was  grating  or  stridulous.  Euphony, 
it  seemed  to  them,  was  one  of  the  first  essentials  of  a 
language;  and  it  was  much  pleasanter  to  be  silent  than 
to  talk  unmusically.  There  had  grown  up  an  instinct 
in  them  that  moulded  their  sentences  into  what  Euro- 
peans would  have  called  poems.  The  barest  statement 
of  fact  ran  with  a  liquid  sweetness  that  drew  the  ear 
like  a  piece  of  beautiful  music.  The  strictest  scientific 
discourse  sounded  to  me  as  majestic  and  melodious  as 
some  of  the  greatest  passages  in  our  Western  poets. 
Their  most  ordinary  conversation  had  the  liquid  har- 
mony of  our  finest  lyrics  without  the  monotonous 
rhythm,  the  jingling  rhyme,  or  the  mincing  gait.  It 
never  struck  them  that  there  should  be  a  special  art  of 
words  apart  from  that  skill  which  all  had  by  instinct 
whenever  there  was  a  thought  to  express.  If  it  were 
a  perfectly  new  thought,  a  discovery  or  invention  that 
was  still  unnamed,  then  it  was  the  duty  of  the  whole 


Literature  411 

people  to  make  or  approve  of  a  word  which  would  ex- 
actly fit  it.  L,oose-fitting  language  soou  meant  loose, 
shambling  thought,  and  it  was  one  of  their  foremost 
responsibilities  as  a  race  to  see  that  no  one  of  them  was 
driven  into  that.  The  appearance  of  a  special  literary 
art,  for  which  some  were  specially  gifted,  would  have 
told  them  at  once  that  their  language  was  disorganised 
and  that  the  first  great  public  need  was  its  reform. 

For  a  time  after  my  arrival  in  the  island  I  was  ac- 
customed to  speak  with  admiration  of  the  great  litera- 
tures of  Europe,  one  of  the  few  features  of  our  Western 
civilisation  which  I  felt  it  no  shame  to  mention.  I 
would  launch  into  glowing  praises  of  the  beauty  and 
aptness  of  the  expression,  the  nobleness  of  the  music, 
and  the  majesty  and  harmony  of  each  work.  When  I 
spoke  of  Homer  and  ^schylus,  of  Dante  and  Milton, 
of  Shakespeare  and  Goethe,  I  was  unbounded  in  mj^ 
admiration  of  their  lofty  genius  in  the  management  of 
their  material.  Questioned  as  to  the  character  of  their 
thoughts,  I  contended  that  there  was  no  need  for  these 
to  be  absolutely  new;  the  greatest  merit  of  such  poets 
was  that  they  took  the  wisdom  of  their  age  or  country, 
or  the  wisdom  of  all  ages  and  countries,  and  expressed 
it  in  a  way  that  was  inimitable.  Their  material  they 
had  gathered  from  books  or  from  the  experience  of  their 
time;  and  most  of  their  great  poems  had  been  analysed 
by  admiring  commentators  into  their  original  elements; 
the  source  from  which  almost  every  idea  had  been 
taken  could  be  pointed  out.  But  this  was  only  to  en- 
hance the  value  of  their  work,  to  increase  their  great- 
ness. It  was  one  of  the  commonest  observations 
amongst  literary  men  in  the  West,  when  defending 
themselves  against  the  charge  of  plagiarism,  that  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  absolute  originality  of  idea  or 


412  Limanora 

material;  the  great  merit  in  literature,  the  test  of  its 
lastingness,  was  the  originality  or  freshness  of  expres- 
sion; the  rest  belonged  to  the  age  or  people  in  which 
it  was  produced,  or  to  mankind  of  all  ages  and  nations. 
And  young  men  and  women  were  encouraged  to  learn 
foreign  languages,  and  especially  the  classical  tongues, 
at  all  hazards,  because  translations  missed  what  was 
distinctive  in  the  great  authors;  if  they  would  enjoy 
the  true  flavour  of  their  originality,  they  must  learn 
and  study  the  language  of  the  great  books  for  them- 
selves. 

I  found  my  efforts  to  communicate  my  enthusiasm  all 
in  vain.  I  was  met  by  a  look  of  pity  in  the  eyes  of  my 
listeners,  and  soon  came  to  know  the  source  and  mean- 
ing of  the  emotion.  They  were  sorry  that  I  should 
continue  to  admire  that  which  was  the  symptom  of  a 
diseased  condition,  and  they  commiserated  the  retro- 
grade state  of  so  many  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  globe,  who  could  spend  some  of  the  best  moments 
and  feelings  of  their  lives  on  what  was  merely  super- 
ficial. They  sympathised  with  the  effort  to  live  in  a 
world  of  thought,  a  spiritual  world,  a  nobler  existence 
than  that  of  eating  and  drinking;  this  was  a  sign  of  a 
yearning  for  advance.  But  they  grieved  that  it  should 
take  such  a  mistaken  direction,  that  their  fellow-men 
in  the  West  should  glory  in  what  was  an  evidence  of 
disease.  Language  was  singularly  disordered,  when 
only  a  few  could  be  found  throughout  the  ages  with 
the  capacity  to  use  it  aptly  and  musically.  Where 
was  the  wisdom  that  guided  the  people,  if  it  could  let 
this  greatest  instrument  and  medium  of  thought  remain 
so  chaotic  and  infirm  that  whosoever  was  skilled  in 
fit  and  melodious  use  of  it  was  held  to  be  inspired  ? 
Surely  it  was  the  first  care  of  the  elders  and  governors 


Literature  413 

to  see  that  the  universal  means  of  communication  was 
at  least  unambiguous  and  explicit.  The  highway  of 
thought  was  left  a  jungle,  primeval  and  inarticulate  as 
the  intercourse  of  animals;  and  one  who  made  a  clear 
track  through  any  part  of  the  labyrinth  was  lauded  as 
divine.  The  literature  of  Europe  was  evidently  but 
the  outcome  of  the  incapacity  of  its  people  for  proper 
self-government.  That  only  a  few  should  be  able  to 
write  or  speak  in  so  clear  and  fitting  a  way  was  a  dis- 
grace to  the  civilisation.  To  honour  them  so  greatly 
as  the  people  did  revealed  the  depths  of  incapacity 
into  which  all  bad  fallen,  and  the  corrupt  state  of  the 
language. 

I  urged  the  marvellous  power  of  suggestion  that 
European  words  had  in  the  hands  of  the  poets.     They 
bore  so  many  sub-meanings  and  branches  of  meaning 
that  the  full  depths  of  a  poem  or  great  prose  work 
were  never  sounded.     Age  after  age  of  students  could 
go  on  studying  it  and  still  find  in  it  new  significance, 
new  inspiration.     Commentary  after  commentary  had 
been  written   on   the   Iliad,    the  Divine  Comedy,  and 
Shakespeare's  plays,  without  exhausting  all  the  mean- 
ing they  had    in    them.     Vast  libraries  of  interpret- 
ation of  them  had  accumulated,  and  yet  every  new  age 
found  opportunity  for  additions  to  them.     This  was 
due  to  the  subtle  under-meanings  that  touched  innumer- 
able keys  in  the  soul,  and  played  upon  a  vast  variety  of 
emotions.     An  able  writer  could  bring  words  together 
so  aptly  as  to  affect  different  minds  in  different  ways. 
A   nebulous  significance  gathered   round  his  phrases 
and   sentences,    and    out   of   this  a  hundred  scholars 
would  make  each  his  own  discovery.     Mystically  lay 
the  thoughts  in  the  depths  of  his  words,  ready  for  the 
profounder  students  to  fathom.     And  so  every  great 


414  Limanora 

poem  inspired  age  after  age  in  a  thousand  different 
directions.  Would  this  have  been  the  case,  if  every 
word  had  been  made  to  serve  but  one  purpose,  if 
every  phrase  had  been  unequivocal  in  meaning,  and 
every  sentence  unshaded  and  perspicuous  ?  It  was  the 
play  of  meaning,  the  opalescent  glimmer  of  light  in  lan- 
guage that  rendered  European  poetry  so  beautiful  and 
undyingly  suggestive.  It  was  the  twilight  of  words  that 
gave  such  majestic  and  shadowy  forms  to  the  ideas  and 
characters  and  scenes  of  the  great  poems  of  the  past. 
And  what  would  the  generations  of  scholars  and  teach- 
ers have  done  without  these  hidden  meanings  to  reveal 
in  their  literature,  without  these  intricacies  to  disen- 
tangle, without  these  dim  allusions  and  adumbrations 
of  sense  to  make  clear  ?  Where  would  our  youth  have 
found  their  intellectual  training,  if  all  our  great  litera- 
ture had  been  transparent  and  precise  in  meaning  ? 

I  thought  I  had  made  out  a  splendid  case  for  our 
European  tongues.  But  a  glance  at  the  face  of  my 
querist  served  to  scatter  my  vanity  to  the  winds.  There 
was  the  same  inscrutable  look  of  pity  in  the  eyes. 
Everything  I  had  pleaded,  as  I  thought,  so  eloquently 
had  only  deepened  the  Limanoran  view  of  the  shame- 
ful waste  of  talent  which  the  undefined  and  perpetually 
shifting  sense  of  European  words  produced  in  the  West. 
There  must  the  ablest  minds  of  most  generations 
wrestle  all  their  lives  with  the  loose-jointed  languages 
they  had  to  employ,  and  try  to  get  their  benediction 
and  inspiration  into  form  for  the  ages  to  wrestle  with. 
There  must  thousands  of  capable  men  and  women 
waste  their  best  years  in  searching  for  recondite  mean- 
ings in  the  works  these  have  produced.  There  must 
all  the  immature  minds  spend  their  youth  on  the  hated, 
barren  task  of  trying  to  grasp  the  mirage  of  sense  in 


Literature  4*5 

the  books  they  learn.  What  progress  would  there  not 
have  been  in  Europe  if  all  this  talent  and  energy  and 
time  had  been  saved  for  the  real  work  of  life,  if  all  the 
best  thinkers  she  produced  had  been  set  to  the  labour 
of  true  discovery  ?  It  was  little  wonder  that  her  civil- 
isation was  practically  unprogressive,  when  so  much 
of  it  was  built  on  the  quicksands  of  her  language.  All 
the  shades  and  suggestions  of  meaning  were  but  pitfalls 
wherein  most  of  her  men  and  women  foundered  on  the 
journey  of  life.  It  was  with  mere  shadows  and  shows 
that  her  greatest  minds  fought;  they  were  not  conquer- 
ing the  unknown  and  undiscovered  that  their  fellow- 
men  might  advance  in  their  footsteps.  The  night 
encircled  them  as  deeply  as  before  their  preternatural 
efforts.  How  could  the  blind  lead  the  blind  in  a  land 
covered  with  mists  and  full  of  pitfalls  ? 

I  had  still  a  few  arrows  in  my  quiver,  I  thought.  No 
one  could  deny  the  beauty  of  the  literary  art  and  the 
training  it  gave  to  the  sense  of  what  was  fair  and  noble. 
Where  will  one  find  anything  so  melodious  as  our  great 
poems  ?  Where  anything  so  harmonious  as  the  prose 
of  our  finest  stylists?  A  beautiful  lyric  can  hold  a  na- 
tion entranced.  A  fine  piece  of  prose  can  stir  thousands 
to  admiration.  What  could  be  more  ennobling  than 
the  effect  of  our  greatest  poems  on  the  youth  of  our 
nations,  what  more  refining  than  the  study  of  our  great 
prose-writers  ? 

Again  I  knew  how  far  beside  the  mark  I  had  shot. 
Style  was  but  the  effort  of  a  language  to  throw  off  its 
diseases,  an  acknowledgment  of  the  gross  imperfections 
that  burdened  it  and  made  it  a  clog  on  the  progress  of 
thought.  If  a  language  were  what  it  ought  to  be,  a 
precise  means  of  intercourse  between  soul  and  soul,  a 
true  medium  of  intellectual  energy,   then   ought  the 


4i6  Limanora 

race  that  uses  it  to  be  completely  unconscious  of  any- 
thing like  style.  We  never  know  we  breathe,  or  how 
we  breathe,  till  some  stoppage  makes  breathing  diffi- 
cult; we  never  realise  we  have  a  heart  whose  pulsa- 
tions are  essential  to  life,  till  it  beats  irregularly,  and 
alarms  us  with  the  prospect  of  disease  in  it.  So  it  is 
with  speech,  the  instrument  of  communication  among 
men,  the  ether  of  thought;  did  it  perform  all  its  func- 
tions in  a  healthy  and  perfect  way,  we  should  pay  little 
or  no  attention  to  it;  were  words  unambiguous  and 
precise,  every  man  would  speak  and  write  in  the  best 
of  all  styles,  that  natural  and  transpicuous  method  of 
expression  which  fixes  the  whole  mind  of  the  listener 
or  reader,  not  on  the  means  of  conveyance,  but  on  the 
energy  that  passes  through  it.  Speech  should  be  no 
more  than  one  of  the  unpremeditated,  unguided  func- 
tions of  our  system;  as  soon  as  it  calls  for  attention,  it 
is  deranged;  as  long  as  we  are  unconscious  of  it,  it  is 
healthful  and  strong,  acting  in  every  way  as  it  should, 
without  shadow  or  broken  light,  without  indefinite- 
ness  of  meaning  or  mistaken  suggestion. 

Nor  should  a  language  even  in  its  commonest  thor- 
oughfares be  devoid  of  music.  How  false  must  be  the 
rendering  of  a  thought,  if  for  the  sake  of  melody  he 
who  is  called  a  poet  should  have  to  reject  all  but  musi- 
cal expressions  in  a  language  which  has  little  music  in 
it!  How  artificial  must  be  the  labours  of  this  profes- 
sional word-monger,  when  he  must  sit  amongst  the 
debris  of  his  vocabulary,  and  pick  and  choose  with 
weary  exertion  the  words  that  will  fit  into  his  poem ! 
With  most  of  his  language  unsuited  to  his  purpose,  as 
being  invented  or  moulded  b)'  unmusical  people,  he  is 
like  a  mosaic-worker  who  has  to  make  his  work  out  of 
common  stone,  or  out  of  fragments  of  pottery  thrown 


Literature  4J7 

into  the  rubbish-heap  of  the  ages.  Most  languages 
sound  like  the  rasping  of  a  file  over  iron,  or  the  shoot- 
ing of  debris  over  a  precipice,  or  at  best  the  crackle  and 
hiss  of  fireworks.  And  it  is  not  surprising;  for  their 
individual  words  are  made  out  of  an)?thing  that  is  ready 
to  hand  by  men  who  care  nothing  for  the  sound  of  them, 
whether  it  is  harsh  or  melodious.  Now  and  again  if  a 
word  or  phrase  becomes  current  out  of  the  range  of 
literary  products,  it  will  get  its  harsh  grating  syllables 
ground  off,  or  rounded  and  polished  in  the  torrent  of 
common  speech.  Thus  are  prepared  the  only  elements 
of  the  language  that  are  fit  for  the  fine  mosaic- work  of 
Western  poets.  They  rescue  these  time-smoothed 
pebbles  from  their  gross  or  vulgar  surroundings  and 
place  them  in  a  setting  that  will  make  them  seem 
beautiful  for  a  time. 

It  is  only  for  a  time;  again  the  fair  structure  they 
have  made  falls  into  ruin,  and  fragments  are  whirled 
into  the  eddies  of  everyday  speech  and  abandon  their 
beauty  of  form  and  meaning  for  something  their  original 
maker  would  never  recognise.  Then  begins  the  old 
process;  the  debris  of  forgotten  works,  rounded  and 
smoothed  in  the  current  of  time,  serves  as  the  rubble 
to  be  concreted  into  the  artistic  works  of  a  new  age. 
Alas  for  the  artists  who  have  such  a  task  before  them ! 
Out  of  the  rubbish  heap  of  the  past  they  must  mould 
what  will  please  the  new  times.  And  where  is  there 
room  for  true  harmony  in  the  result  of  such  a  process? 
The  materials  depend  for  their  form  on  the  caprice  of 
chance;  the  artists  depend  for  the  form  they  give  on 
the  caprice  of  the  age  in  which  they  work,  certain  to 
be  antiquated  by  the  next  new  fashion.  As  long  as 
a  literary  product  depends  on  its  form  for  its  lasting 
effect,  it  must  be  comparatively  ephemeral;  for  form  is 


4i8 


Limanora 


nothing  if  it  does  not  suit  the  fancy  of  the  age  to  which 
it  appeals,  and  the  fancy  of  one  age  conflicts  with  most 
others.  Artificial  means  may  seem  to  keep  it  alive,  an 
ecclesiastical  or  political  movement,  the  aid  of  an  ex- 
traneous art,  or  the  ambition  of  scholars  and  critics; 
but  the  life  is  only  galvanic,  and  not  from  the  heart  of 
the  people.  No  true  music  can  come  out  of  that  which 
is  essentially  unmusical. 


CHAPTER  VI 


INSPIRATION 


I  ABANDONED  the  effort  to  defend  the  literature 
of  Christendom,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
people  that  so  scorned  all  word-mongering  could  not 
have  any  literature.  I  was  soon  disabused  of  the  idea. 
One  day,  after  my  education  had  advanced  into  the 
final  stage  of  its  earlier  course,  and  my  loyalty  to  the 
race  had  been  tested  in  many  ways,  my  proparents  bade 
me  accompany  them  to  the  production  of  a  new  book. 
After  what  I  had  heard  in  depreciation  of  literature 
such  as  I  had  been  accusomed  to  in  Europe,  I  was 
somewhat  startled  at  this  invitation.  But  they  said 
nothing  to  explain  the  anomaly,  although  they  knew 
well  the  nature  of  the  discussion  I  had  had  with 
Thyriel. 

I  had  thought  that,  during  my  long  residence  in  the 
island  and  in  my  countless  flights  over  it,  I  had  come 
to  know  every  public  institution  existing  on  it.  But  I 
was  mistaken  again.  In  our  course  we  chose  a  direc- 
tion that  for  a  space  was  one  I  had  several  times  taken. 
But  soon  we  bent  out  of  the  usual  track  up  Lilaroma, 
and  turning  one  of  its  western  spurs,  made  for  a  deep 
valley  which  was  concealed  from  view,  except  to  voy- 
agers towards  the  sunset.     Here  we  found  the  air  filled 

419 


420  Limanora 

with  wings  and  airships  streaming  onwards.  It  was  a 
beautiful  sight,  this  navy  of  the  sky  fleeting  across 
the  snows  of  Ljlaroma,  or  winnowing  the  depths  of 
the  azure.  We  had  been  on  the  adjoining  coast  of  the 
island,  and  had  not  to  strike  far  upwards  in  order  to 
reach  our  destination.  So  the  air-fleet  moved  far  above 
us,  most  of  it  having  to  round  the  heights  of  the  gleam- 
ing mountain.  Nothing  could  surpass  the  grace  with 
which  they  took  their  way  through  the  heaven,  now  to 
this  point,  now  to  that;  and  after  a  time  I  could  hear 
the  movement  of  their  wings,  like  the  rustle  of  silken 
sails. 

In  gazing  dreamily  upwards,  I  had  allowed  myself  to 
drop  too  near  the  earth,  and  in  order  to  reach  the  goal 
of  our  flight  exactly  I  had  to  take  another  long  rise. 
Thereafter  my  gaze  was  bent  earthwards  on  a  still 
more  beautiful  sight  beneath  me.  A  broad  valley  nar- 
rowed coastwards  to  a  deep  gorge  and  mountain  wards 
into  a  rift  in  the  rocks.  The  river  which  had  sculp- 
tured this  singular  amphitheatre  had  been  deflected  by 
an  artificial  channel  into  the  centre  of  force,  but  was 
allowed  at  times  to  sweep  its  old  bed  free  of  the  debris 
of  rocks  and  vegetation.  Up  each  side  vibrated  in  the 
air  tier  upon  tier  of  their  automatic  rests,  enough  to 
accommodate  a  nation.  All  lay  open  to  the  sky;  yet 
there  was  a  subdued  light  down  in  the  hollow  of  the 
vale,  that  soothed  the  eyes  tired  with  the  gleam  of  the 
blue  and  snow  above;  and  this  twilignt  deepened  into 
gloom  towards  the  head  and  the  exit  of  the  valley. 
Only  in  the  afternoon,  as  the  sun  westered,  it  shot  its 
level  rays  through  the  chasm  at  the  entrance,  and  mel- 
lowed the  gloom  even  of  the  ravine  at  the  upper  end 
with  its  golden  light.  And  at  sunset  the  concentration 
of  the  many-coloured  rays  through  the  gorge  had  a 


Inspiration  421 

striking  effect  upon  the  whole  amphiteatre;  it  was  as 
if  a  theatrical  artist  were  lighting  it  up  for  some  super- 
natural scene. 

The  afternoon  sunlight  indeed  soon  revealed  to  our 
eyes,  as  we  settled  on  the  slopes,  an  immense  stage 
that  shot  out  of  the  ravine  on  the  mountain-side.  It 
was,  I  could  see,  the  natural  theatre  of  the  island,  cut 
out  by  other  than  human  powers.  And  from  side  to 
side  the  gentlest  whisper  would  carry,  yet  without  re- 
coil; while  the  sound  of  the  moving  stage,  as  it  rolled 
forth,  rose  along  the  tiers  and  without  break  or  reper- 
cussion died  away  into  the  open  sky  above  our  heads. 
It  must  have  been  here,  I  thought,  that  the  architects 
of  Limanoran  buildings  had  learned  the  acoustic  secrets 
of  nature.  Never  a  sound  was  lessened  or  confused  in 
passing  to  the  farthest  corner  of  any  of  their  vast  halls. 
Nor  was  it  from  any  mechanical  contrivance  underneath 
the  roof,  but  simply  from  the  shape  of  the  enclosure. 
Nature  had  formed  this  valley  into  a  perfect  theatre, 
in  the  highest  tier  of  which  not  one  listener  could  miss 
the  smallest  sound.  Yet  by  a  singular  contrivance,  by 
means  of  which  a  globe  of  irelium  was  kept  over  the 
stage,  every  sound  was  tenfold  magnified  lest  the  merest 
whisper  should  escape,  whilst  every  hearer  had  at  hand 
a  margol,  which  would  soften  sounds  that  carried  too 
loudly  to  the  ear.  Another  strange  effect  of  this  irelium 
shell  was  that  it  magnified  to  the  eye  everything  upon 
the  stage  a  hundredfold;  it  acted  as  a  powerful  micro- 
scope, so  that  each  spectator  was  far  nearer  to  the  inner 
structure  of  any  object  than  mere  human  eye-power 
could  bring  him. 

We  had  not  to  wait  long  for  the  purpose  of  these 
preparations.  There  entered  upon  the  stage  two  figures 
that  underneath  the  gk>be  seemed  gigantic  beside  the 


422  Limanora 

bodies  of  Limanoran  men  and  women.  They  had 
Limanoran  outlines,  but  transmuted  into  something 
more  ethereal  than  aught  I  had  seen.  There  was  a 
grace  of  form  and  a  beauty  of  face  beyond  any  of  those 
around  me  on  the  slope  of  the  hill.  And  even  to  my 
eyes,  untrained  and  limited  as  they  were  in  their 
powers,  there  was  a  transparency  in  the  tissue  of  their 
bodies  which  revealed  the  movements  of  their  organs; 
I  saw  their  hearts  pulsate,  and  the  currents  of  the 
blood  move  quicker  or  slower  along  their  veins  as  they 
walked  or  stood  still.  We  could  even  watch  the  effect 
of  their  emotions  in  their  systems,  and  the  excited  or 
tranquil  movement  of  thoughts  in  the  tissues  of  their 
brains.  The  impulses  that  travelled  along  their  nerves 
from  brain  to  hand  or  foot,  and  the  reports  that  kept 
journeying  from  the  various  senses  to  the  nerve-centres, 
seemed  all  to  be  made  plain  to  us;  and  seemed  the 
work  of  a  magician,  so  marvellous  was  it,  so  far  above 
mere  human  achievement. 

But  still  greater  marvels  were  to  follow.  These  two 
beings  or  automata  or  moving  shadows  of  beings,  or 
whatever  they  might  be,  enacted  a  scene,  the  signifi- 
cance of  which  I  comprehended  only  after  many  days' 
thought.  My  immediate  impressions  and  my  subse- 
quent conclusions  and  knowledge  have  so  amalgamated 
that  it  is  difficult  to  separate  the  two  elements.  These 
two  beings  were  chosen  friends,  the  complements  of 
each  other,  with  tendencies  and  tastes  and  loves  all  in 
unison.  Such  perfect  fitting  of  nature  to  nature  was 
not  as  yet  to  be  found  even  in  Limanora.  Thought 
sprang  to  thought,  and  emotion  to  emotion,  and  yet 
there  was  a  spontaneity  and  origination  in  both  that 
made  each  a  separate  fountain  of  life  and  action.  How 
independent  the  characters  and  powers,  and  yet  how 


Inspiration  423 

mutually  adapted!     The  scene  was  meant  to  picture  a 
friendship  that  was  a  true  and  perfect  marriage. 

The  two  had  grown  year  by  year  closer  in  harmony 
till  at  last  the  mutual  sympathy  had  culminated  in  a 
yearning  to  see  an  individuality  that  would  combine 
the  best  peculiarities  of  each  and  perpetuate  the  combin- 
ation. We  could  see  the  thought  flame  into  a  passion 
in  the  two  systems,  and  then  we  could  hear  the  friends 
talk  around  the  longing  till  it  grew  definite,  into  a 
common  project.  We  saw  them  gather  the  materials 
needed  for  the  formation  of  the  body.  With  intricacies 
of  furnace  and  crucible  and  machinery  they  moulded 
these  into  the  skeleton  of  a  man,  flawless  and  strong 
in  every  part.  They  tried  every  bone  with  numberless 
tests,  till  they  found  it  all  to  their  satisfaction.  Then 
they  started  on  the  cartilages  that  kept  the  bones  in 
place  or  moved  them,  giving  permanence  and  life  to 
each,  as  they  made  it,  by  the  magnetism  they  com- 
municated to  it.  Tissue  by  tissue  they  built  up  the 
internal  organs,  modelling  them  with  loving  care  on 
those  they  saw  at  play  beneath  their  own  eyes,  and 
testing  them  to  see  that  they  performed  their  functions 
perfectly.  What  delicate  artistic  energy  they  spent 
upon  the  upper  tissues  of  the  body,  upon  the  brain  and 
ear  and  eye!  Each  created  and  developed  the  quality 
loved  and  admired  in  the  other.  There  was  nothing 
they  omitted  to  make  the  new  being  complete  and 
happy  in  all  his  functions.  On  the  minute  nerves 
and  tissues  they  worked  under  powerful  microscopes, 
and  the  minutiae  of  every  sense  and  organ  and  function 
were  examined  and  tested  again  and  again  with  the 
same  magnifying  power  turned  on  them.  The  figure 
they  made  most  noble  and  symmetrical  in  proportions 
and  outlines,  the  face  they  made  as  beautiful  as  human 


424  Limanora 

face  could  look.  The  stuff  in  which  they  worked  was 
ethereal  in  its  texture  and  constituents.  It  was  difficult 
to  discern  it  with  our  senses  even  under  the  great  mag- 
nifying globe.  It  seemed  to  be  of  air  or  some  product 
of  the  ether;  for  it  flowed  underneath  their  guiding 
fingers  almost  invisible.  And  the  result  was  a  body 
more  transparent  than  their  own.  It  was  a  marvel  of 
refinement  and  strength  combined;  they  experimented 
on  every  limb  and  sense,  every  nerve  and  muscle  and 
tissue,  and  they  corrected  every  defect  in  it  before  they 
reached  the  final  act. 

At  last  the  work  was  completed  to  their  satisfaction, 
and  they  braced  themselves  for  the  most  exhausting 
task  of  all.  How  were  they  to  make  of  this  image  a 
living  creature  ?  I  smiled  as  I  thought  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  what  was  evidently  before  them.  Yet  they 
seemed  perfectly  calm  in  their  preparation  for  the  final 
endeavour.  Only  there  was  a  subdued  volcanic  energy 
in  their  systems  that  seemed  to  show  that  they  con- 
sidered it  a  task  almost  superhuman.  They  encouraged 
each  other,  and  we  could  see  them  infuse  new  magnet- 
ism into  their  bodies  by  means  of  machinery  of  great 
power.  Their  faces  were  filled  with  the  glow  of  a  rap- 
turous appeal  to  heaven.  They  were  putting  them- 
selves into  connection  with  some  being  they  adored 
invisible  to  us,  some  impalpable  fountain  of  life.  They 
took  the  hands  of  the  image  they  had  formed,  and 
raised  it;  they  placed  it  between  them,  so  that  it  should 
be  in  the  path  of  all  energy  that  passed  from  one  to  the 
other.  They  laid  their  hands  upon  its  head  and  nerve- 
centres,  and  at  the  same  time  the  pleading  rapture  on 
their  faces  rose  almost  to  trance.  Their  spirits  seemed 
to  go  out  from  them.  They  looked  like  two  in  dream. 
A  faint  flush  came  upon  the  cheeks  of  the  image  be- 


Inspiration  425 

tween  them,  and  died  out.  Again  their  souls  seemed 
to  return  to  full  consciousness,  and  the  rapture  grew 
upon  their  faces.  Again  the  signal  of  life  dawned  on 
the  countenance  of  the  image.  Throb  by  throb  they 
gave  of  their  own  souls  to  his,  meantime  drawing  from 
some  fountain  of  life  and  spirit  unseen  by  us.  Slowly 
the  eyelids  rose,  and  the  lips  moved.  There  was  true 
life  in  the  image.  The  three  walked  as  in  trance,  yet 
with  the  joy  of  creation  pulsing  through  them.  The 
child  of  their  imagination  was  like  both,  yet  inde- 
pendent, and  more  beautiful  to  look  upon.  Love  broke 
through  the  new  being  and  theirs  in  wild  pulsations. 
The  three  awoke  to  a  new  life.  And  then  the  scene 
vanished,  and  I  seemed  to  have  but  dreamed. 

Yet  there  was  the  deep  valley  with  the  sunset  rays 
shooting  through  it  ;  and  up  the  slopes  rested  thou- 
sands of  flesh-and-blood  Limanorans  beside  me.  A  few 
thoughts,  and  I  knew  that  it  was  no  dream.  Was  it 
magic  ?  I  could  not  believe  that  such  a  people  would 
indulge  in  mere  trifling  with  life  and  the  powers  above 
life.  My  spirit  of  enquiry  stirred  my  guardians,  and  I 
soon  knew  from  them  that  this  was  the  first  publication 
of  a  new  book,  called  Human  Sculpture.  The  deep 
valley  with  its  apparatus  was  the  theatre  of  futurition, 
where  every  imaginative  foresight  was  first  put  into 
a  form  that  would  appeal  to  the  whole  people.  It  was 
called  Loomiefa  or  the  display  of  pioneering. 

Their  literature  was  all  science,  and  that  the  science 
of  the  future.  Romanci  ng  about  the  past  or  the  present 
seemed  to  this  utilitarian  people  waste  of  the  noblest 
faculty  of  man,  shameful  squandering  of  imaginative 
wealth  on  that  which  is  naught.  Mere  retrospection 
for  its  own  sake  without  reference  to  subsequent  ad- 
vance was  thought  by  them  the  most  pernicious  of 


426  Limanora 

madnesses;  they  diagnosed  it  as  a  kind  of  ethical  blind- 
ness, that  could  neither  see  the  right  nor  do  it.  The 
state  of  peoples  who  looked  at  nothing  but  the  past 
with  admiration  was  one  of  the  lowest  circles  of  their 
inferno;  another  was  that  of  nations  that  saw  nothing 
good  outside  of  themselves  and  their  immediate  sur- 
roundings. In  such  unprogressive  national  or  racial 
attitudes  they  saw  all  the  evils  of  inbreeding;  the 
weaknesses  and  intellectual  and  moral  diseases  of  the 
past  grew  despotic  in  their  power  over  the  human  sys- 
tem, till  they  came  to  seem  the  only  virtues;  even  what 
had  been  once  virtues  grew  inveterate  and  routine,  or 
monstrous  and  overpowering  in  their  excess.  The 
past  served  only  as  the  soil  for  the  better  growths  of 
the  future.  And  an  exhausted  soil  became  barren,  if 
not  poisonous,  for  all  but  weeds,  or  growths  that 
needed  and  deserved  no  attention  or  cultivation. 

To  spend  imagination  on  the  past,  therefore,  was  to 
them  a  crime  against  the  future.  What  was  dead  and 
needed  invention  to  bring  before  the  mind  again  was 
better  in  its  grave.  A  literature  that  turned  back  to 
the  past  for  its  progress  clogged  the  wheels  of  progress, 
unless  it  belonged  to  a  race  that  had  fallen  back  cent- 
uries behind  the  natural  advance  of  the  world.  For  a 
progressive  nation  to  give  of  its  best  for  the  resurrec- 
tion of  a  dead  past  was  to  confess  a  strain  of  barbarism 
in  it,  and  to  prophesy  its  own  rapid  decay.  The  im- 
agination was  the  faculty  of  the  future;  it  had  its  eyes 
set  in  front,  and  not  behind  like  memory;  it  was  meant 
to  investigate  the  horizon  before  us,  and  to  interpret 
the  lights  and  shadows  thrown  from  below  the  rim  of 
vision,  and  not  to  look  back,  whether  with  regret  or 
adoration,  over  the  region  that  humanity  had  beaten 
hard  with  its  weary  footing.     The  future  is  infinite; 


Inspiration  427 

the  human  past  covers  but  a  few  centuries,  and  a  nar- 
row track  through  them.  It  is  not  for  want  of  scope 
that  the  faculty  of  futurition  is  driven  back  on  the 
ground  already  trodden;  it  is  through  a  grievous  and 
incurable  malady,  the  malady  of  preterpluperfection, 
that  twists  the  face  round  to  the  back  of  the  neck,  and 
rots  or  petrifies  the  tissues  of  the  brain  and  the  heart. 
They  counted  it  the  saddest  of  all  spectacles  on  earth 
to  see  a  race,  that  by  its  nature  could  be  rapidly  pro- 
gressive, waste  its  highest  energies  in  retracing  again 
and  again  the  footsteps  of  its  own  ancestry  or  of  the 
ancestry  of  some  other  race.  Nothing  would  persuade 
them  to  permit  any  study  of  the  past  that  was  not 
meant  to  be  wholly  relevant  to  the  future.  They 
tended  to  be,  I  thought,  almost  negligent  of  the  value 
of  history  and  historical  study;  for,  as  our  Western 
commonplace  goes,  history  repeats  itself;  and  however 
new  and  ameliorative  an  age  may  be,  it  may  obtain 
lessons,  and  still  more  warnings,  from  ages  past. 

Their  literature  was  all  of  the  future.  There  were 
two  of  the  largest  families  of  the  race  devoted  to  it,  and 
their  numbers  were  ever  being  recruited  by  adoption 
into  them  of  scions  of  others,  who  revealed  exceptional 
imaginative  faculty.  The}'  had  the  generalised  train- 
ing of  the  island;  but  their  particular  training  was 
more  completely  specialised  than  that  of  any  other 
family.  Nothing  was  omitted  that  would  tend  to  make 
them  of  imagination  all  compact,  or  to  give  them  such 
ease  in  their  command  of  language  as  would  bring 
them  the  exact  word  without  effort.  Next  to  these 
points  in  their  education  stood  tutelage  in  all  that  per- 
tained to  scenic  art  and  music.  For  they  had  to  give 
their  ideas  a  staging  that  would  at  once  appeal  to  the 
imagination   of  the  whole  people.     Iyoomiefa  was  in 


428  Limanora 

their  province.  And  the  literary  form  into  which  they 
were  to  put  their  communications  as  to  the  future  had 
to  be  as  perfect  as  it  could  be  in  their  language,  exactl}- 
expressing  all  they  had  to  convey,  and  at  the  same 
time  appealing  to  the  ear  by  its  melody  and  harmony. 
As  far  as  histrionic  art  was  allowable  in  the  island  they 
were  the  artists,  whilst  in  the  linguistic  conventions  of 
the  people  they  were  the  leaders  and  suggesters  in  the 
making  of  words,  and  in  the  choice  of  words  made. 
The)'  had,  I  could  see,  the  finest  heads  in  the  com- 
munity; the  brow  was  broad,  full,  and  shapely;  the 
eyes  were  large  and  yet  deeply  set  under  the  brows; 
the  base  of  the  skull  was  of  great  width;  every  section 
of  the  brain  that  had  to  do  with  imaginative  and  poetic 
power  was  well  developed.  Yet  their  faces  and  features 
showed  no  difference  from  the  common  Limanorau 
type;  they  had  no  more  beauty  or  regularity  of  outline. 
It  was  clear  that  all  children  of  a  certain  shape  of  skull 
and  development  of  brain  were  selected  for  training 
and  adoption  by  these  two  families,  whenever  they 
needed  recruits. 

From  the  first  the  youth  of  these  two  families  were 
educated  in  the  sciences  of  the  day  in  order  that  they 
might  know  what  gaps  in  knowledge  had  to  be  filled, 
and  what  laws  should  guide  and  limit  their  imaginative 
prospecting.  For  the  literature  they  produce  is  science 
in  embryo.  Science  lays  the  foundations  of  literature, 
and  literature  prepares  the  way  for  science.  These 
families  by  their  imaginative  productions  based  on  all 
that  is  already  known  pioneer  the  scientific  investi- 
gators into  the  new  regions  of  the  future.  They  keep 
in  touch  with  the  leaders  of  science,  and  act  as  allies  to 
them,  finding  out  the  track  of  what  these  are  trying  to 
discover  or  invent,  and  suggesting  methods  of  supply- 


Inspiration  429 

ing  their  wants  or  reaching  their  aims.  They  provide 
working  hypotheses  for  the  scientists  to  apply  and  test 
and  they  map  out  roads  for  the  whole  race  into  the 
darkness  of  the  unknown  or  the  twilight  of  the  half- 
conjectured. 

Thus  their  literature  is  fiction;  for  tentative  fiction, 
they  hold,  is  the  only  unstagnant  truth.  The  produc- 
tions of  the  pioneering  families  have  all  to  be  submitted 
to  the  national  test.  What  the  race  disapproves  of  is 
promptly  cancelled  and  forgotten.  What  meets  with 
the  approval  of  the  elders  or  of  the  leaders  of  any  one 
of  the  sciences  is  handed  over  to  them  for  experimenta- 
tion, even  though  it  should  not  attract  the  rest  of  the 
people.  What  strikes  the  fancy  of  the  nation  as  a 
whole  is  adopted  as  the  map  and  guide  of  the  future; 
it  is  the  sacred  book  of  the  time,  and  the  citizens  study 
it  daily  for  the  purpose  of  reaching  the  goal  it  sets  be- 
fore their  life. 

But  every  new  age  antiquates  one  or  more  of  these 
sacred  books.  For  the  region  they  have  mapped  out 
in  the  future  is  reached  and  travelled  over,  the  advance 
they  anticipate  is  made,  the  ideal  they  paint  is  realised 
and  rapidly  becoming  commonplace.  It  puzzled  me 
for  a  time  to  guess  what  they  did  with  their  superseded 
books,  knowing  as  I  did  how  superfluous  they  counted 
all  researches  into  the  past  and  all  imaginative  pictures 
of  the  present.  My  question  as  usual  was  not  long 
unanswered.  I  was  shown  the  library  of  antiquated 
fiction  in  the  valley  of  memories.  It  was  used  in  the 
very  earliest  stages  of  education.  The  children  read 
the  books  or  heard  them  in  order  to  see,  when  they 
reached  years  of  maturity,  what  the  race  had  come 
from  and  how  much  it  might  yet  advance,  to  gather 
enthusiasm  from  the  spectacle  of  the  progress  made, 


43°  Limanora 

and  to  learn  lessons  for  their  own  future.  Beyond 
childhood  and  early  youth  every  miuute  was  counted 
lost  that  was  not  spent  on  the  future  and  its  possibili- 
ties; and  for  a  man  or  woman  of  mature  years  all  forms 
of  antiquarianism  were  counted  idleness. 

They  never  permitted  themselves  to  lay  too  much 
stress  on  any  sacred  book,  or  to  adore  it  too  passion- 
ately, however  much  they  might  be  guided  by  it  for  a 
time;  for  they  knew  from  experience  that  it  would  soon 
be  worked  into  the  nature  of  the  race  and  the  system 
of  the  individual,  and  another  would  take  its  place. 
The  sacred  book  of  to-day  was  bound  to  be  transcended 
to-morrow.  The  foresights  and  ideals  of  this  year  would 
be  the  truisms  of  next.  The  real  desecration,  they 
thought,  was  to  rest  too  many  ages  over  a  sacred  book, 
its  precepts  unworked  into  the  life,  its  pictures  and 
ideals  unrealised;  to  adore  its  words  and  deny  its  spirit 
by  failing  to  advance  beyond  its  point  of  view.  A  book 
too  long  held  sacred  is  a  charge  of  stagnancy  and  bar- 
barism against  a  race  and  an  insult  to  its  intelligence. 
It  proves  that  the  civilisation  has  become  stereotyped, 
or  worse,  retrospective;  to  eat,  to  sleep,  to  fall  prostrate 
before  a  dead  ideal,  to  propagate  and  die,  sum  up  the 
ultimate  duties  of  existence  at  its  highest  level. 

Every  book  was  sacred  to  the  Limanorans  which 
threw  light  upon  the  track  ahead  into  the  darkness; 
and  so  long  as  it  still  gave  light  where  light  was 
needed,  it  remained  sacred.  Whenever  its  light  be- 
came the  common  daylight  around  the  race,  and  espe- 
cially if  they  had  to  look  backwards  in  order  to  see  its 
waymarks,  then  was  it  promptly  committed  to  the  val- 
ley of  memories.  Not  a  moment  was  wasted  on  its  pre- 
cepts after  they  had  become  the  laws  of  everyday 
existence.     They  had  known  from  their  own  history 


Inspiration  431 

what  a  terrible  engine  of  oppression  a  book  might  be 
when  once  it  had  become  antiquated  without  losing  the 
adoration  of  the  people;  its  prophecies,  which  had  be- 
come mere  tales  of  the  past,  had  to  be  projected  again 
into  the  future  by  mystic  interpretation;  its  precepts, 
embodying  the  spirit  of  a  generation  long  dead,  had  to 
be  galvanised  into  life  by  casuistry;  and  innumerable 
methods  had  to  be  extorted  from  its  overstrained  text 
to  prevent  the  human  mind  moving  on  past  its  own 
stage  of  morality  and  civilisation.     How  many  ages  in 
their  own  history  did  their  ancestors  live  with  their 
dead!     Into  the  warmest  feelings  of  their  hearts  had 
the  grave-clothes  of  the  past  intertwined;    and  what 
torture  to  love  and  the  noblest  feelings,  what  bloodshed 
and  horrors  it  cost  them  to  be  able  to  stand  off  from 
their  dead  authority,  and  look  at  it  with  unprejudiced 
mind!     It  had  become  a  part  of  their  best  selves,  and 
it  seemed  like  suicide  to  cast  it  from  them,  and  relegate 
it  to  its  true  home,  the  graveyard  of  the  past. 

That  long  experience  was  burned  into  their  natures; 
and  to  lay  too  much  stress  on  any  new  book  or  idea 
gave  them  an  instinctive  pang.  They  could  not  bear 
to  linger  over  it,  once  the  light  had  died  out  of  it  and 
its  leading  had  become  a  highway-mark  for  the  passer- 
by. To  utter  or  admire  the  obvious  or  commonplace 
was  counted  one  of  the  gravest  offences  against  the 
commonweal;  it  awakened  a  look  of  pity  in  the  eyes  of 
the  listener  as  for  one  who  was  smitten  with  an  incura- 
ble disease.  A  repetition  of  the  offence  would  lead  to 
drastic  measures  with  the  victim.  He  was  haled  before 
the  medicists,  and  his  system  was  minutely  examined 
for  the  source  of  the  malady,  and  for  weeks  was  he 
kept  under  medical  supervision ;  no  labour  or  watch- 
ing  or  remedial  pain  was  spared   till    the   source  of 


432  Limanora 

offending  was  scourged  out  of  the  constitution  of  the 
sufferer. 

As  a  rule  it  was  found  on  investigation  that  the  in- 
fection had  come  from  some  book,  whose  spirit  and 
precepts  had  become  incorporated  in  the  past  of  the 
race  and  could  give  no  more  vitality  to  it.  It  was 
good  enough  for  children  and  youth,  who  were  passing 
through  the  primitive  stages  of  development;  to  them 
it  was  fresh  and  new  for  a  time,  and  was  even  the 
source  of  life  and  vigour.  But  once  out  of  the  valley 
of  memories  the  men  and  women  who  could  read  it 
with  any  pleasure  were  considered  unhealthy  and  ata- 
vistic, and  were  sent  to  hospital  for  treatment.  The 
symptoms  of  the  malady  of  the  commonplace  were  well 
known  and  most  patent, — loquacity,  fondness  for  con- 
fidential communications  and  mysterious  suggestions 
under  solemn  conditionings,  or  even  oaths  of  silence, 
bustling  idleness,  feeble  smiles  of  impotent  superiority, 
jocular  dogmatism,  assumption  of  wisdom,  and  exces- 
sive vanity.  If  the  disease  had  not  been  so  infectious 
and  stealthy  in  its  spread,  it  would  never  have  been 
treated  so  seriously  and  so  promptly;  for  it  was  seldom 
malignant,  in  its  earlier  appearances  at  least;  only 
when  it  became  morbid,  and  took  the  shape  of  injured 
feeling  at  unrecognised  genius,  resulting  at  times  in 
jealousy  and  slander,  or  conspiracy  and  rebellion,  or 
when  it  grew  masterful  and  acquired  a  sense  of  its  own 
infallibility  and  omnipotence,  resulting  generally  in 
petty  spite  and  persecution,  was  there  any  deadly  virus 
in  it.  It  was  its  epidemic  character  that  made  it  most 
formidable,  and  necessitated  a  system  of  moral  quaran- 
tine vSpecial  precautions  were  taken  in  permitting  the 
use  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  past,  and  of  antiquated 
or  superseded  ideas.     They  were  only  useful  for  teach- 


Inspiration  433 

ing  the  young  reverence  for  great  thoughts  and  great 
thinkers,  and  for  leading  the  mature  to  estimate  their 
own  achievements  modestly,  when  they  saw  the  rapid 
antiquation  of  even  the  most  striking  books. 

One  evil  that  arose  from  the  study  of  past  literature, 
the  over-valuation  of  literary  work,  they  tried  to  ob- 
viate. They  placed  noble  deeds  on  the  same  footing 
with  noble  words  and  thoughts,  and  saw  that  they  were 
as  carefully  recorded  and  described.  It  was  the  duty 
of  the  young  to  report,  and  give  permanent  form  to, 
anything  that  was  done  greatly.  With  their  enthusi- 
asm made  more  glowing  by  their  ignorance  and  in- 
experience, they  acted  as  the  historiographers  of  the 
race.  The  }Touth  of  a  family  went  with  the  elders 
whenever  any  difficulty  offered  itself,  and  with  their 
recording  instruments,  iuasans  and  linasans  and  idro- 
sans,  they  took  flying  pictures,  electrographs,  and  re- 
ports of  the  scene  for  deposit  in  the  valley  of  memories. 
If  any  emergency  arose  and  was  nobly  met  when  the 
3'outhful  remembrancers  were  not  present,  they  wrote 
the  annals  of  it  none  the  less,  and  reproduced  its  scenes 
in  moving  representations  after  interviewing  all  who 
witnessed  the  deed.  There  w7as  as  much  inspiration, 
this  people  held,  in  a  great  action  as  in  a  great  book, 
provided  it  illumined  the  darkness  of  the  road  ahead 
of  them. 

For  to  them  the  true  test  of  greatness  and  inspiration 

was  the  power  of  fore-illumination  or  of  stimulus  to 

progress.     Whatsoever  flashed  light  over  the  unknown 

in  front  must  have  come  from  a  higher  point  of  view 

than   their  own  immediate  surroundings.      Word   or 

deed,  it  was  to  them  all  the  same,  if  it  had  this  divine 

characteristic;    the  one  was  as  worthy  of  chronicling 

and  preserving  as  the  other.     But  they  ceased  to  look 
28 


434  Limanora 

upon  it  as  a  source  of  stimulus  to  action  as  soon  as  it 
failed  to  throw  light  upon  their  future,  or  to  hold  up 
an  ideal  that  they  had  not  yet  attained.  Inspiration, 
like  all  other  things  and  beings  in  the  universe,  was 
progressive.  No  idea  or  deed,  no  word  or  book  could 
be  permanently  inspired.  And  the  quicker  a  race  pro- 
gressed, the  sooner  it  sterilised  its  sacred  thoughts  and 
deeds.  All  noble  human  advance  was  a  process  of  de- 
inspiration;  a  step  upwards  makes  the  climber  capable 
of  looking  down  upon  the  previous  point  of  vision,  and 
of  looking  up  for  a  still  higher,  and  to  gaze  downwards 
is  to  encourage  retrogression.  Whosoever  or  whatso- 
ever caught  the  first  gleam  of  a  peak  above  them  was 
to  them  inspired.  But  it  was  the  duty  to  reach  that 
peak  in  their  march  upwards  as  soon  as  possible;  and 
once  it  was  reached,  where  was  the  inspiration?  It 
was  itself  far  below  with  the  age  that  supplied  it. 

Some  new  deed  or  thought  or  book  was  certain  to 
take  the  place  of  that  which  had  for  a  time  been  con- 
sidered sacred.  And,  if  that  did  not  come,  then  woe 
to  the  race!  Progress  must  stop  and  darkness  must 
close  in  on  their  purblind  leaders,  who,  in  order  to  re- 
tain their  dominance,  must  elevate  the  past,  immediate 
or  distant,  into  a  divinity,  and  its  best  book  into  an 
oracle.  After  a  time  so  obscured  do  the  pages  of  this 
book  become  with  cobwebs  of  interpretation  that  at  last 
they  must  spin  new  cobwebs  out  of  their  intestines. 
The  dread  of  light  from  without  becomes  a  horror.  If 
a  new  teacher  or  prophet  should  come,  down  with  him 
into  the  dust;  his  teachings  are  false,  for  they  agree 
not  with  the  devotion-cobwebbed  book.  If  a  reformer 
sees  light  above  and  ahead,  he  is  banned  as  a  messenger 
of  hell;  and  what  he  sees  is  nothing  but  a  diabolic 
marshlight.     All   through   the  race  spread  the  awful 


Inspiration 


435 


diseases  of  spiritual  inbreeding,  inability  to  distinguish 
the  true  from  the  false,  love  of  delusion,  unwholesome 
and  insane  pursuits  and  ends,  and  the  madness  of 
cruelty  and  intolerance.  Nothing  but  fierce  revolution 
could  save  a  race  from  such  a  plight.  And  the  germs 
of  revolution  must  come  from  without  themselves  and 
without  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PIONEERING 

IMAGINATION,  corrected  by  racial  instinct  in  the 
assemblies  of  all,  was  the  seeker  for  foregleams  of 
what  was  to  be.  And  a  people  that  had  organised  its 
civilisation  into  a  disciplined  advance  was  not  likely  to 
leave  its  scouts  and  vanguard  unorganised.  Its  destiny 
was  largely  in  the  hands  of  those  who  went  before  it 
into  the  night,  or  who  ascended  the  heights  above  it, 
and  told  of  the  region  to  be  traversed  next,  and  the 
best  routes  through  it.  There  was  no  service  that 
needed  so  much  the  best  powers  of  the  race  and  its  best 
organisation. 

Into  the  pioneering  families  were  gathered  their  most 
powerful  imaginations.  For  imagination  is  the  only 
clairvoyant  of  the  faculties;  it  can  see  what  lies  below 
the  horizon  of  knowledge;  it  can  forecast  the  world  as 
it  might  be  and  as  it  is  to  be;  and  it  can  draw  the  hu- 
man mind  onwards  by  the  splendours  of  this  forecast. 
This  people  had  early  realised  the  sibylline  character 
of  the  faculty,  and  the  great  part  it  might  play  in  their 
devotion  to  progress.  And  they  resolved  to  save  it 
from  all  waste.  They  refused  to  have  it  become  the 
mere  slave  of  luxury  or  of  popular  amusement,  such 
as  they  saw  it  was  in  most  other  civilised  nations. 

436 


Pioneering  437 

Even  where  it  conjured  up  the  past  in  magnificent 
literary  pictures,  what  else  was  it  than  the  pander  to 
tastes  and  habits  that  were  overworn,  the  encomiast  of 
deeds  that  had  better  be  buried  in  oblivion  ?  It  fre- 
quented the  palaces  of  kings  and  licked  the  dust  off 
their  feet,  or  it  played  the  buffoon  to  the  indolent,  sen- 
suous crowd.  At  rare  times  it  isolated  itself,  and, 
heedless  of  the  babbling  world  that  offered  it  so  man3r 
prizes,  it  wrestled  with  the  powers  of  darkness  and 
ignorance.  But  what  could  a  poor  recluse  do  against 
the  infinite  night  ?  If  it  were  to  help  the  forward 
march  of  humanity,  it  must  be  disciplined  and  or- 
ganised to  a  definite  aim. 

All  other  peoples  have  left  imagination  to  struggle 
for  itself.  This  people  recognised  it  as  the  most  un- 
schooled and  shiftless  of  the  human  faculties,  whilst 
they  felt  it  to  be  the  most  divine  and  fullest  of  promise. 
They  determined  that  amongst  them  it  should  lose  its 
reeling  gait  and  wandering,  aimless  eye,  and  become 
the  pioneer  of  their  march  onwards;  instead  of  fixing 
its  eye  on  the  past  or  on  the  favours  of  the  great,  it 
should  skirmish  before  the  main  army  into  the  region 
of  the  unknown ;  it  should  report  on  the  difficulties  and 
the  enemies  to  be  met,  and  map  out  the  world  as  it  was 
to  be.  What  would  be  thought  of  the  shipmaster  who 
let  the  keenest-eyed  of  his  crew  lounge  round  the  ship 
looking  into  the  pockets  of  his  comrades  and  making 
them  laugh,  or  lean  over  the  stern  watching  the  track 
left  behind,  if  darkness  and  cloud  and  a  broken  sea 
ever  lay  on  the  horizon  ahead  ?  What  else  were  the 
nations  doing  with  their  lookout  faculty,  imagination, 
but  allowing  it  to  waste  itself  on  providing  amusement 
for  the  luxurious,  or  on  figuring  the  problem  of  the  past? 

It  was  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  Limanoran  elders, 


438  Limanora 

after  the  great  series  of  purgations  of  the  race,  to  or- 
ganise and  develop  the  imagination  they  had  in  their 
midst.  The\'  had  observed  that  there  were  two  great 
types  and  uses  of  the  faculty;  one  was  short  of  vision, 
and  could  see  with  great  distinctness  the  regions  that 
were  hidden  in  twilight  immediately  in  front  of  them; 
the  other  was  far-sighted,  and  could  descry  the  fea- 
tures of  wide  regions  that  lay  in  darkness  under  the 
horizon.  There  happened  to  be  amongst  them  two 
families  distinguished  from  all  others  by  their  great 
imaginativeness,  and  from  each  other  by  pre-eminence 
in  one  of  these  two  kinds  of  imagination.  The  task 
therefore  was  easy.  It  only  needed  care  in  disciplin- 
ing the  members  of  these  to  the  main  purpose  of  the 
race,  in  developing  the  faculty  of  each,  and  in  recruit- 
ing their  numbers  from  the  most  imaginative  children 
of  other  families.  The  Loomiamo  or  pioneers  of  the 
immediate  were  recruited  chiefly  from  the  scientific  and 
technical  families;  for  their  duties  lay  most  of  all  in 
supplying  hypotheses  for  experimentation,  in  suggest- 
ing methods  of  solving  difficult  problems,  and  in  tracing 
out  paths  that  invention  should  take;  invention  in  fact 
was  what  they  were  oftenest  engaged  in.  But  there 
was  a  subordinate  function,  that  was,  however,  of  equal 
importance  for  the  forward  movements  of  the  race;  it 
was  to  take  the  far-reaching  conceptions  of  the  other 
imaginative  family,  and  show  how  they  could  be  at- 
tained by  the  civilisation  and  means  they  already  had. 
They  accepted  the  scientific  ideas  and  apparatus  of  the 
time  as  they  were  and  out  of  them  and  their  develop- 
ment they  engineered  a  highway  through  the  inter- 
vening twilight  to  the  ideal  that  the  Fraloomiamo  or 
pioneers  of  the  distant  had  pictured  and  set  up  ahead 
of  the  race. 


Pioneering  439 

I  had  not  known  of  this  division  of  pioneering  work 
when  I  flew  back  from  the  marvellous  spectacle  in  the 
valley  of  futuritions.  As  I  thought  over  it,  I  became 
more  and  more  sceptical  of  the  realisability  of  the 
scene.  It  had  the  inconsecution  and  absurdity  of  a 
dream.  I  said  to  Thyriel,  where  was  the  possibility  of 
ever  substituting  artificial  for  natural  propagation  of 
the  race  ?  It  was  completely  out  of  the  line  of  evolu- 
tion, and  could  lead  to  nothing  but  what  was  unnatural 
and  evil.  They  could  modify  nature  to  an  indefinite 
extent,  I  knew;  but  what  was  the  use  of  attempting  to 
supersede  nature  ?  And  suppose  it  were  possible  to 
supersede  it  in  this  respect,  where  would  be  the  advan- 
tage ?  They  could  already  modify  and  guide  nature 
so  as  to  produce  the  type  of  children  they  desired  for 
the  progress  of  the  race;  what  more  was  needed  ? 

Thyriel  gave  no  answer,  partly  because  she  thought 
that  the  elders  were  more  capable  of  answering,  partly 
because  she  knew  that  the  publication  of  the  book  on 
human  sculpture  was  by  no  means  finished.  Next  day 
my  sense  of  community  with  the  immediate  yearning 
and  aim  of  the  Limanorans  drew  me  unconsciously  to 
Loomiefa  again;  and  on  my  way  the  streaming  wings 
through  the  sky  showed  me  that  my  impulse  was  not 
purposeless;  there  was  a  general  movement  towards 
the  same  goal.  Soon  the  whole  amphitheatre  was  filled 
from  height  to  hollow  with  spectators  enriched  in  colour 
by  the  rays  of  the  afternoon  sun. 

I  had  scarcely  settled  in  my  rest  and  surveyed  the 
scene  when  I  knew  that  all  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  hol- 
low of  the  valley.  The  platform  had  again  run  out 
with  the  globular  magnifier  covering  it.  But  the  suc- 
cession of  scenes  upon  it  was  almost  too  swift  for  my 
observation,  untrained  as  I  still  was  in  my  senses,  and 


44Q  Limanora 

a  certain  confusion  still  rests  over  the  spectacle  in  my 
memory.  Many  of  the  links  in  the  chain  were  so 
amazing  as  to  bewilder  me,  and  yet  the  general  pur- 
pose and  effect  of  the  scene  as  a  whole  rise  above  the 
confusion  in  my  mind. 

I  knew  before  it  was  done  that  it  was  a  complete 
answer  to  my  questions  and  scepticism.  The  Loomiamo 
were  enacting  the  various  stages  in  the  evolution  of  the 
race  which  would  connect  its  actual  state  with  the 
possibility  of  artificial  human  propagation.  One  scene 
enacted  what  they  had  long  been  able  to  do,  the  pro- 
duction of  animal  tissue  of  all  kinds;  even  the  most 
subtle  nerve  was  spun,  and  under  their  microscopes 
they  could  examine  it  like  a  rope.  Another  showed 
animal  creation  at  work  on  the  combination  of  tissue 
into  one  of  the  lower  types  of  animal.  One  after  an- 
other in  a  long  series  we  the  saw  creative  power  rise 
in  its  ambitions  and  efforts  through  the  animal  creation 
up  to  the  human.  But  the  most  striking  scene  was  to 
come.  It  was  the  application  of  the  newly  discovered 
biometer  to  the  search  for  the  principle  of  life.  We 
saw  the  creative  artists  investigate  with  the  instrument 
plant  after  plant  and  animal  after  animal,  and  fail  in 
their  attempts  to  isolate  it  or  produce  it.  They  modi- 
fied the  biometer  in  innumerable  ways.  Then  we  saw 
them  fly  though  the  atmosphere,  and  set  the  new  life- 
measuring  apparatus  afloat  in  space.  After  repeated 
attempts,  ever  pulling  the  faleena  back  empty,  they  at 
last  showed  by  the  joy  on  their  faces  that  they  had  at- 
tained the  goal  of  their  quest.  In  the  delicate  test- 
tubes  of  their  new  biometers  was  found  something  that 
kept  agitating  their  indicators.  Soon  they  had  it  in 
their  laboratories,  and  were  experimenting  with  it. 
Again  and  again  they  gathered  it  from  the  vacuum 


Pioneering  441 

above  the  atmosphere.  At  last  by  means  of  it  they 
were  enabled  to  find  it  in  the  plants  around  them,  and 
in  the  animals  of  the  surrounding  islands.  A  series 
of  scenes  as  amazing  showed  how  they  came  at  the 
discovery  of  the  principle  of  soul  by  means  of  the  psy- 
chometer.  Step  by  step  (and  each  step,  I  came  after- 
wards to  feel,  represented  a  Limanoran  generation) 
they  traced  it  back  to  its  secret.  Most  of  all  were  they 
aided  in  their  researches  by  investigations  outside  of 
the  atmosphere;  there  they  captured  in  the  tubes  of 
their  psychometers  the  form  of  energy  that  constituted 
human  soul.  And  in  their  laboratories  they  were  able 
to  study  it  at  leisure. 

For  long  I  felt  that  these  pictures  of  the  future  were 
unlikely  to  be  realised.  Yet  the  steps  in  the  process 
were  so  gradual,  and  the  scene  representing  each  so 
vivid  that  I  came  in  after  years  to  accept  it  as  well 
within  the  range  of  Limanoran  possibilities;  fori  real- 
ised at  last  how  far  into  the  future  imagination  could 
pioneer,  and  what  a  vast  number  of  ages  one  of  these 
predictive  dramas  would  cover.  My  sense  of  time  was 
crude  and  weak  during  my  earlier  years  in  the  island, 
and  it  was  difficult  for  me  to  appreciate  the  passage  of 
cosmic  periods,  such  as  were  often  implied  in  the  scenes 
representing  the  publication  of  a  book  by  the  Fralco- 
miamo. 

I  afterwards  listened  to  the  book  of  Human  Sculpture 
itself,  as  it  uttered  itself  from  a  loud-sounding  linasan 
or  reproducer  of  speech.  This  automaton-reader  hail 
the  long  strip  of  irelium  constituting  a  Limanoran  book 
fed  into  it  off  the  cylinder  on  which  the  book  was  kept 
rolled.  It  gave  the  sound  and  even7  intonation  of  the 
author's  voice,  so  that  there  was  no  difficulty  in  follow- 
ing his  everjr  thought  as  it  found  expression.     I  never 


442  Limanora 

came  to  be  able  to  read  those  books  on  the  irelium  rolls 
themselves  under  a  microscope,  as  the  L,imanorans 
could,  and  preferred  to  use  my  hearing  instead  of  my 
eyes.  There  was  no  possibility  of  ambiguity  if  I  lis- 
tened to  the  words  as  they  came  hot  from  the  thinker's 
own  lips. 

A  new  and  more  esoteric  kind  of  book  tended  to 
supersede  this  at  a  later  period.  It  consisted  of  an 
electrogram  of  the  author's  thoughts,  as  they  developed 
and  shaped  themselves,  flashed  on  to  long  moving  strips 
of  labramor  or  electricity-sponge  by  his  active  magnetic 
sense;  this  placed  in  an  idrosan  or  electrograph  affected 
the  firla  of  the  receiver  so  that  he  followed  the  whole 
process  of  thinking.  Such  a  permanent  record  of  crea- 
tive thought  in  its  process  of  creating  was  of  measure- 
less value  to  such  a  people  as  this,  for  every  economy 
of  time  and  intelligence  meant  a  quickening  of  their 
march  into  the  nobler  future.  But  for  many  ages  the 
effort  of  electrographing  the  thought  was  too  much  ex- 
cept for  the  most  powerful  of  mature  creative  minds; 
and  that  of  receiving  the  flash  of  the  electrogram 
through  the  firla  was  within  the  capacity  of  none  but 
those  who  had  developed  their  magnetic  faculty  to 
great  refinement  of  power. 

The  book  of  Human  Sculpture  was  the  first  of  the  re- 
cent imaginative  productions  that  I  became  acquainted 
with.  Thyriel  and  I  joined  a  party  of  youth  who, 
under  the  guidance  of  our  proparents,  were  to  listen  to 
it,  as  it  sounded  through  the  linasan  in  the  valley  of 
L,oomiefa.  Hour  after  hour  we  followed  the  melodious 
periods,  as  they  echoed  up  the  slopes;  at  brief  in- 
tervals on  the  rocky  curtain  at  the  head  of  the  gorge 
there  would  flame  out  for  several  minutes  a  moving 
picture  of  the  scenes  we  had  witnessed  the  enaction  of 


Pioneering  443 

on  the  stage;  and  a  stil!  more  striking  illustration  of 
the  text  of  the  book  was  a  magnetic  communication  to 
our  minds  of  the  originating  impulse  which  moulded 
each  thought  and  scene  in  the  imagination  of  the 
author,  and  the  creative  enthusiasm  he  felt  as  each 
idea  burst  in  all  its  light  upon  his  soul.  By  the  time 
we  had  finished  the  book  we  knew  its  whole  conception 
and  history,  its  purpose,  and  its  probable  effect  upon 
the  civilisation. 

It  answered  all  my  questions,  and  rooted  out  all  my 
scepticism.     The  whole  object  of  their  unending  labours 
was  to  take  command  of  nature  by  finding  out  her  se- 
crets and  abridging  her  processes,  so  as  to  make  them 
serviceable  to  their  advance.     I  felt  how  absurd  had 
been  my  objections;  for  where  would  this  people  have 
been,  if  they  had  left  nature  to  herself?     What  else 
was  barbarism  but  leaving  nature  to  herself,  so  that  the 
more  cruel  animal  part  of  her  became  dominant  ?     Na- 
ture included  an  infinite  range  of  gradations  of  energy 
and  life  from  what  we  call  dead  matter  to  the  subtle 
and  elevated  organisations  that  fill  space  and  evade  the 
finest  perception  of  our  senses.     Within  our  own  sys- 
tems are  to  be  found  many  of  those,  from  the  debris  of 
our  bodily  tissues  and  organs  to  the  noblest  thought 
we  can  conceive;   the  precept   to  let  nature  alone  is 
fraught  with  inextricable  ambiguity;  and  if  we  let  the 
myriad  natures  within  us  fight  it  out,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  which  would  have  dominance,  for  it  is  easier  to 
level  down  than  to  level  up.     Every  interference  with 
the  lower  nature  in  order  to  bring  it  under  the  sway  of 
the  higher,   every  new  mastery  of  our  systems  as  a 
whole  by  our  creative  thought,  is  a  step  upwards  in  the 
scale  of  existences.     Three  fourths  of  the  process  of 
human  propagation  belonged  to  the  sphere  of  our  lower 


444  Limanora 

nature,  so  that  civilised  men  and  women  were  ashamed 
to  speak  of  it,  and  tended  to  become  gross  and  coarse 
if  they  did  freely  speak  of  it.  Every  act  seemed  to 
drag  them  back  again  to  the  level  of  the  animals,  and 
it  took  them  years  of  effort  to  drive  the  thoughts  and 
traces  of  it  into  oblivion.  They  had  as  a  people  pain- 
fully fought  their  way  up  out  of  the  slough  of  passion, 
and  mastered  the  emotions  that  tended  to  overbalance 
them  by  their  excess,  and  to  plunge  them  back  again 
into  it.  Guard  themselves  as  they  might  by  all  kinds 
of  precautions,  and  spiritualise  the  act  as  they  ever 
tried  to  do,  its  necessary  recurrence  never  failed  to  em- 
brute  the  nature  for  a  moment,  whilst  it  still  kept  open 
a  path  for  retrogression.  To  shut  out  this  possibility 
of  re-descent  into  the  beast  would  be  one  of  the  greatest 
services  to  their  race. 

As  useful  for  their  advance  would  the  command 
of  human  propagation  be  in  another  direction.  The 
only  fear  of  deterioration  that  still  haunted  them  arose 
from  atavism.  Nature  had  still  a  trick  of  returning  on 
her  own  footsteps.  The  child  of  the  noblest  pair  had 
at  times  traces  of  far-back  ancestry  resurgent  in  evil  or 
retrogressive  traits;  and  it  wasted  the  time  and  the 
best  energy  of  parents  and  proparents  to  obliterate 
these.  In  every  germ  lay  dormant  the  potentialities 
of  its  whole  ancestral  past;  and  any  one  of  them  might 
assert  itself  as  master  during  the  dim  unguided  life  of 
gestation.  With  all  their  precautions  something  evil 
might  still  lurk  in  the  systems  of  the  young  to  be  de- 
veloped in  full  maturity  of  life.  But  if  they  moulded 
every  tissue  and  organ  and  faculty  for  themselves,  this 
retrogressive  tendency  that  nature  treasures  up  in 
every  germ  and  child  would  disappear.  There  would 
be  nothing:  to -watch  or  obliterate  in  the  immature. 


Pioneering  445 


A  still  greater  economy  of  time  and  labour  would 
result  in  the  abridgment  of  the  earlier  processes  of 
education.  Education,  it  is  true,  never  ceased  through- 
out life.  But  the  education  of  the  mature  was  self- 
conducted;  the  citizen  was  his  own  schoolmaster,  and 
his  surroundings  were  his  instruments  and  assistants. 
That  of  the  earlier  stages  used  up  the  labour  and  wis- 
dom of  two  other  personalities  for  the  long  period  of 
discipline;  they  were  ever  on  watch  and  guard  lest  the 
past  that  lay  in  the  youthful  nature  should  suddenly 
rise  and  master  it.  For  all  education  is  a  wrestle  with 
the  superseded  past,  which  becomes  evil  as  soon  as  it 
grows  superfluous  or  obstructs  further  advance.  Every 
form  of  vitality  that  has  played  its  part  on  the  stage  of 
existence  leaves  it  with  reluctance;  it  clings  to  the  new, 
that  it  may  have  a  little  more  of  life,  and  impedes  its 
advance.  The  obsolete  most  survives  in  the  tissues  of 
the  young  and  immature;  and  to  educate  is  to  strug- 
gle with  the  obsolete  or  obsolescent.  The  labour  and 
thought  needed  to  make  the  struggle  end  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  new  and  progressive  have  never  been  under- 
stood so  well  by  any  as  by  the  elders  of  the  Eimanorans. 
No  effort  of  their  civilisation  was  so  exhausting  as  the 
educative.  To  enter  on  parenthood  or  proparenthood 
made  them  pause,  for  all  acknowledged  that  the  as 
sumption  of  this  duty  was  the  greatest  sacrifice  a  man 
or  woman  could  make  for  the  progress  of  the  race. 
They  knew  that  for  half  a  century  their  individual 
vigilance  could  never  cease,  and  that  the  strain  would 
come  on  all  their  faculties,  and  not  on  one  or  two 
alone,  as  it  would  in  most  of  the  other  duties  they  owed 
to  the  race,  even  invention  or  discovery.  Whatsoever 
would  commute  or  abolish  this  heavy  service  to  the 
nation  was  sure  to  be  welcomed.     So  vast  an  amount 


446  Limanora 

of  the  best  time  and  wisest  ability  of  the  island  would 
be  set  free  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  calculate  the 
acceleration  of  progress  it  would  effect. 

All  this  and  a  thousand  other  considerations  passed 
through  my  mind,  as  I  listened  to  the  book  of  Hu- 
man Sculpture  and  drank  in  its  inspirations.  The 
doubts  that  its  dramatic  publication  had  left  in  me  were 
all  laid.  I  now  knew  that  this  would  be  a  new  sacred 
book,  which  would  hold  up  for  ages  an  ideal  for  Lima- 
nora to  struggle  towards. 

This  book  of  Human  Sculpture  made  clear  to  me  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  another  publication  that  I  soon 
witnessed.  It  was  the  book  of  Asexuality,  which 
showed  us  dramatically  how  sex  and  its  results  be- 
longed to  a  lower  and  more  physical  stage  of  personal 
development.  It  revealed  to  us  the  nature  of  the  be- 
ings that  flit  through  sidereal  space  just  outside  the 
ken  of  our  senses,  centres  of  energy  less  inert  and  more 
ethereal  than  any  terrestrial  creatures.  Into  them 
flows  more  freely  than  it  flows  into  us  the  divine  energy 
that  is  above  all.  Out  of  themselves  they  give  as  freely 
to  their  fellows  as  they  receive.  They  need  no  such 
inequality  and  unstable  equilibrium  as  sex  to  teach 
them  such  bounteous  benignity.  Living  in  the  pre- 
cincts of  the  fountain  of  life  as  they  do,  not  imprisoned 
within  local  and  temporal  limits,  but  free  to  move 
whither  they  will  and  to  drink  unstintingly  of  supernal 
existence,  they  know  how  essentially  all  nobler  life 
consists  in  free  bounty;  the  more  of  themselves  and 
their  energy  they  give,  the  higher  the  energy  the)'  re- 
ceive in  its  place.  Sex  is  only  the  rude  beginning  of 
this  higher  law,  the  principle  of  antagonism  to  stag- 
nation,  of  giving  lavishly  in  order  to  have  room  for 


Pioneering  447 

receiving   from    higher  sources.      It   supersedes  and 
antagonises  the  law  of  parasitism,  which  governs  the 
crude  beginnings  of  life  on  a  new  world.     The  lower 
microscopic  creatures  that  live  a  famished  jejune  life 
in  space  ready  to  pounce  upon  any  orb  their  shoals  en- 
counter, propagate  by  mere  self-division;    they  have 
nothing  to  give.     A  new  star  cooling  down  on  its  sur- 
face sufficiently  for  life  to  settle  on  is  their  great  op- 
portunity.    There  they  may  parasite  and  feed  to  their 
heart's  content,  propagating  by  the  myriad  every  in- 
finitesimal fraction  of  time.     And,  as  long  as  they  live 
in  such  primeval  luxury,   they  never  move  one  step 
higher  in  life.     Over-supply  of  food,  indeed  all  luxury, 
damns  a  being  to  stagnancy.     The  full-fed  parasite  is 
unprogressive,  and,   though  multiplying  teemingly,  is 
practically  sterile;  his  generations  are  on  a  level  w'ith 
himself;  he  is  immortal  by  mere  fission ;  the  only  func- 
tion of  his  life  is  to  grab,  till  his  gettings  make  him  too 
big  for  his  microscopic  unity,  and  he  has  to  break  up. 
In  the  higher  stages  of  life,  even  in  human  life,  this 
infecundity  attaches  in  the  same  way  to  luxurious  liv- 
ing, whilst  the  sycophant  is  sterile  of  purpose  and  ex- 
istence.    All  take  and  no  give  is  a  monstrosity  above 
the  lowest  bacterial  life.     The  more  of  dependence  or 
flattery  there  is  in  a  people,  the  lower  their  natures;  a 
tyranny  is  the  lowest  political  organism;  and  of  tyran- 
nies the  worst  is  the  socialistic;  for  there,  there  is  no 
inequality  to  antagonise  and  overcome  the  lethargy  of 
parasitism. 

Even  when  bacteria  begin  to  feel  the  pinch  of  scanty 
nutrition  or  malnutrition,  they  start  on  a  new  career, 
and  show  the  first  traces  of  an  advance  in  life.  They 
incline  to  give  as  well  as  receive,  and  here  are  the 
primeval  beginnings  of  sex.     Ill-fed  bacteria  tend  to 


448  Limanora 

propagate  by  means  of  special  cells  or  spores.  Instead 
of  steeping  themselves  in  food  till  they  burst,  they  now 
begin  to  nurse  within  their  systems  a  germ,  to  which 
they  give  of  their  best  till  it  is  able  to  launch  out  for 
itself;  they  cease  to  reproduce  by  fission,  and  reproduce 
by  spore-formation.  This  is  the  first  step  upwards  on 
the  long  road  to  human  morality.  The  beginnings  of 
sex  are  the  beginnings  of  unlikeness  of  individuals,  and 
the  beginnings  of  unstable  equilibrium  and  of  overflow 
of  energy  from  one  being  into  another.  This  is  the 
organisation  of  the  policy  of  give  in  a  new  star,  ultim- 
ately meant  to  drive  out,  after  a  world-long  struggle, 
the  antagonistic  policy  of  mere  get.  Sex  first  intro- 
duced into  our  world  the  eagerness  of  one  being  to  give 
of  its  best  for  the  good  of  another  being.  Conjugal 
love  in  the  human  era  is  the  first  noble  form  of  sexual- 
ky;  and  parental  love  is  its  still  nobler  offshoot. 

The  development  of  parenthood  is  the  knell  of  sex- 
uality. For  it  is  a  new  and  higher  phase  of  the  policy 
of  give,  and  antiquates  the  mere  mutuality  of  sexual 
love.  It  gives  of  its  all  expecting  nought  in  return. 
And  into  the  place  of  the  energy  that  has  gone  out  of 
it  flows  an  energy  that  is  nearer  the  divine  and  raises 
towards  the  divine.  It  is  at  this  point  that  sex  be- 
comes a  lower  stage,  seeming  almost  to  mingle  with 
brute  life.  Out  of  it  must  humanity  struggle  in  order 
to  progress.  "  In  the  spirit  there  is  no  sex."  This  I 
had  heard  as  a  meaningless  echo  from  wise  lips  in  the 
West.  Now  I  saw  its  significance.  The  higher,  the 
mure  spiritual  we  become,  the  less  we  permit  sex  to 
dominate,  and  the  less  difference  there  is  between  the 
sexes.  It  was  in  the  world  of  imagination  and  intel- 
lect that  the  first  idea  of  equality  of  the  sexes  arose. 
And  the  more  intellectual  a  people  became,  the  less  it 


Pioneering  449 

insisted  on  the  difference  between  man  and  woman. 
Emphasis  on  sex  in  a  civilised  people  was  a  sure  sign 
of  approaching  decay. 

For  the  goal  towards  which  the  human  race  is  ad- 
vancing is  asexual;  not  that  that  will  be  the  main 
characteristic;  but  it  is  the  most  striking  compared 
with  our  present  phase  of  being.  The  more  highly 
organised  existences  that  fill  space  and  hover  just  out- 
side the  range  of  our  grosser  senses  have  reached  the 
stage  in  which  the  stimulus  of  sex  or  even  of  parent- 
hood is  no  longer  needed  in  order  to  save  the  benignant 
instincts  from  dying  out.  And  the  higher  a  centre  of 
energy  climbs  in  the  scale  of  existence,  the  more  eager 
does  it  become  to  overflow  into  other  centres,  to  give 
of  its  highest  and  best.  What  we  call  life,  or  the  spon- 
taneous rejection  of  stagnancy,  begins  on  its  lowest 
fringe  with  a  tendency  to  take  all  and  give  none,  with 
appetite.  Below  this  are  inert  centres  of  energy,  that 
resist  all  receiving  as  well  as  all  giving,  that  exist  only 
in  persisting,  in  keeping  what  they  have  and  what  they 
are;  this  stage  is  usually  called  dead  matter  in  contrast 
to  energy,  although  it  consists  of  nuclei  of  energy  as 
truly  as  any  living  creature.  Between  the  two  stages 
of  mere  keep  and  mere  take  seems  to  lie  a  great  gulf 
fixed;  but  there  are  minute  evidences  of  transition  to 
be  found  all  through  nature.  We  ourselves,  the  hu- 
man race,  form  the  transition  from  the  stage  of  take  all 
to  the  stage  of  give  all.  And  sex  is  the  chief  impetus 
to  progress  in  the  earlier  history  of  human  evolution. 
Parenthood  takes  its  place  in  the  upper  levels,  where 
the  human  is  rapidly  approaching  the  supersensuous. 
The  very  fact  of  our  nature  being  so  heterogeneous  and 
complex  reveals  that  we  are  making  for  something 
higher;  and,  as  our  appetites  imply  a  stage  behind  us, 


45o  Limanora 

in  which  our  systems  were  fitted  for  nothing  but  tak- 
ing, so  our  loves,  our  benevolences,  our  self-sacrifices, 
point  forward  to  a  stage  in  which  the  whole  of  exist- 
ence will  consist  in  giving.  I  remember,  whenever  an 
average  man  in  Europe  quoted  the  phrase,  "  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  he  meant  it  as  a  jest, 
or  in  a  sinister  sense;  even  the  priest,  when  he  had  to 
preach  the  doctrine  as  one  of  the  foundations  of  his  re- 
ligion, had  incredulity  in  his  heart  if  not  in  the  smile 
on  his  lips,  as  he  spoke  the  words.  Amongst  the 
Limanorans  it  was  a  truism  that  was  implied  in  all 
conduct  and  need  never  be  explicitly  stated.  And  the 
book  of  Asexuality  revealed  the  inner  and  scientific 
significance  to  me.  The  highest  state  of  any  centre  of 
energy  in  the  cosmos  was  to  be  eagerly,  lavishly,  and 
perpetually  giving  out  of  its  best.  For  thus  was  it  ever 
kept  in  unstable  equilibrium,  towards  which  flowed 
higher  and  higher  energies  from  centres  above  it;  thus 
it  kept  its  life  uustagnaut  and  immortal.  That  which 
only  received,  and  was  eager  only  to  receive,  suffered 
the  maladies  of  the  luxurious,  soon  reached  its  utmost 
capacity,  and  fell  into  stagnancy  and  decay.  Above 
the  human  rose  the  hierarchy  of  sexless,  supersensuous 
beings,  who  peopled  infinite  space;  but  into  their  ranks 
rose  the  human  by  means  of  struggle,  by  means  of  the 
effluence  of  their  energy  into  others,  by  means  of  sex, 
and  still  more  of  parenthood.  The  purpose  of  sex  is  to 
attain  to  the  higher  asexuality. 

Not  that  monasticism  is  good  for  the  human  race. 
It  is  on  the  contrary  the  greatest  of  evils  in  the  sexual 
stage  of  progress.  It  counts  as  wicked  and  harmful 
that  which  alone  prevents  self-absorption  and  the  be- 
ginning of  decay  and  death.  Sex  is  the  provision  of 
nature  for  drawing  the  animal  outside  of  itself  so  that 


Pioneering  451 

it  may  introduce  into  its  generations  the  seeds  of  de- 
velopment. It  makes  it  as  a  centre  of  energy  feel  the 
need  of  other  centres,  to  which  it  may  give,  from  which 
it  may  receive.  It  is  her  chief  means  of  keeping  any 
vital  centre  from  falling  back  into  stagnancy  and  the 
desire  of  stagnancy.  And,  as  long  as  man  is  still  ani- 
mal, sex  and  its  resultant  parenthood  must  continue  to 
play  the  main  part  in  development.  To  attempt  to 
reach  asexuality  before  the  animal  is  ejected  from  his 
system  is  to  balk  progress  and  invite  stagnancy  and 
decay. 

The  book  of  Asexuality  showed  how  the  family  must 
remain  the  unit  and  lever  of  advance  till  sex  should  be 
superseded  by  individual  creation.  Then  friendship  or 
the  bond  of  contrast  in  community  will  take  the  place 
of  the  bond  of  heredity,  or  of  that  bond  which  is  based 
upon  sexual  passion.  The  mutual  choice  will  be  com- 
pletely rational  and  in  the  will  of  the  choosers.  There 
will  be  nothing  instinctive  or  mediate  or  unconscious 
about  it.  It  is  indeed  one  of  the  indignities  of  this 
present  sexual  stage  of  evolution  that  we  are  thrust  on 
in  spite  of  ourselves,  that  we  have  little  command  over 
the  stimulus  that  is  urging  us  on  the  road  of  progress. 

The  Limanorans  had  got  rid  of  some  of  this  indignity 
inasmuch  as  the  elders  and  wise  men  took  command  of 
the  instinct  of  sex,  and  bent  it  in  the  direction  of  their 
own  line  of  advance.  In  other  peoples,  and  especially 
in  the  West,  it  stumbled  blindly  on,  led  sometimes  by 
the  love  of  youthful  beauty,  sometimes  by  the  love 
of  money,  sometimes  by  the  necessities  of  position 
and  diplomacy,  most  frequently  by  ambition  and  the 
love  of  power  or  social  influence,  seldom  or  never  by 
the  deliberate  intent  of  producing  noble  posterity. 
As  a  consequence  retrogression  in  health,   physique, 


45 2  Limanora 

morality,  or  intellectual  power  was  seen  in  all  ranks  far 
oftener  than  progress.  Over  the  whole  there  might  be 
a  slight  advance  in  centuries;  but  in  most  families  it 
was  one  generation  forward  and  the  next  back.  This 
people  had  by  their  purgations  become  the  assistants  of 
nature;  and  since  the  era  of  the  exilings  they  had 
wisely  piloted  sex  to  serve  the  highest  purposes  of  evo- 
lution. The  young  were  still  driven  half-blindly  by 
the  sting  of  sex,  and  might  by  chance  accelerate  pro- 
gress; but  the  elders  without  revealing  their  art  wisely 
controlled  the  instinct,  and  by  the  governance  of  prox- 
imity and  opportunity,  companionship  and  circum- 
stances, amongst  the  immature  made  it  the  guardian 
and  keeper  of  past  advance  and  the  prompter  of  still 
renewed  advance.  The  final  step  was  pictured  by  this 
new  imaginative  book,  the  supersession  of  sex  and  the 
deliberate  creation  of  posterity.  This  would  relieve 
the  elders  of  their  anxious  task  of  match-making,  and 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  pairs  themselves  the  control 
of  the  parental  instinct  and  the  power  of  improving 
their  posterity. 

Even  as  it  was,  I  could  see,  from  the  axioms  and 
postulates  of  this  book  of  Asexuality,  and  the  impres- 
sion it  made  on  my  friends  and  companions,  that  the 
sex-instinct  was  already  to  a  large  extent  under  the 
control  of  those  whom  it  impelled.  It  had  become, 
like  their  appetite  for  food,  saturated  with  intellect  and 
deliberation.  It  was  no  mere  goad  that  drove  them 
on  in  the  dark  stumbling  towards  some  object  that 
would  gratify  the  passion.  They  knew  its  physio- 
logical and  psychological  working,  and  understood 
how  the  destinies  of  the  race  waited  upon  the  wisdom 
or  folly  of  its  guidance.  Not  even  the  youngest  of 
them  would  allow  it  the  caprice  and  perverse  whimsi- 


Pioneering  453 

cality  that  was  considered  its  native  prerogative  in  trie 
West.  The  passionate  whim  of  the  moment  for  "a 
grey  eye  or  so  "  was  no  more  to  them  than  toothache 
or  the  pangs  of  indigestion,  an  aberrancy  from  healthy 
nature,  to  be  checked  and  healed  as  soon  as  possible. 
I  found  that  I  was  far  in  the  rear  of  their  advance  in 
respect  to  love.  My  Western  heroics  and  amorous 
transports  were  discounted  and  j^et  curiously  watched 
as  the  antiquated  manners  of  an  age  long  gone  by. 
Nothing  gave  so  keen  a  shock  to  my  self-approval  as  the 
smile  that  played  upon  the  face  of  Thyriel  when  I  first 
broke  into  the  raptures  of  adoration  for  her  which  are 
the  natural  expression  of  passionate  love  in  my  native 
Europe.  Romeo-and-Julietism  had  been  consecrated 
by  centuries  of  the  traditions  of  Christendom  as  the 
true  attitude  and  conduct  of  lovers.  And  here  was  I, 
only  fulfilling  the  instinct  and  bursting  into  the  ap- 
propriate transports  of  passion,  reined  in  by  what  I 
thought  at  first  the  cynicism  of  my  Juliet.  The  smile 
would  have  been  cynical  on  the  lips  of  a  young  Euro- 
pean inamorata.  In  Thyriel  it  was  no  more  than  the 
amused  recognition  of  manners  which  she  had  laughed 
at  in  studying  the  ancient  history  and  literature  of  the 
island,  as  if  I  had  seen  a  comrade  in  the  commonness 
of  European  daily  life  adopting  the  language  and  atti- 
tude of  Homeric  or  Ossianic  heroes. 

I  grew  ashamed  of  the  amorous  ardours  of  the  West, 
and,  when  I  felt  the  tendency  to  erotic  idolatry  come 
upon  me,  I  kept  it  to  myself.  Even  then  I  knew  that 
I  was  centuries  behind  my  Ljmanoran  coevals  in  the 
rational  guidance  of  the  sexual  instinct.  Nothing 
brought  this  so  clearly  to  my  mind  as  the  reception  of 
the  book  of  Asexuality.  During  its  dramatic  publica- 
tion I  looked  round   to  see  the   shock  of  unnatural 


454  Limanora 

innovation  on  the  faces  of  the  audience,  or  the  shrinking 
of  modesty,  or  the  sense  of  outraged  religious  or  tra- 
ditional instincts.  But  there  was  none  of  these  to  be 
found  there.  The  ideal  was  accepted  at  once  as  the 
proper  and  possible  goal  of  the  race,  and  the  book  was 
treasured  amongst  the  sacred  literature  of  the  time. 

It  soon  flashed  upon  me,  too,  as  I  frequented  L,oo- 
miefa,  that  their  art  had  all  a  far  higher  purpose  than 
I  had  conjectured  from  my  European  experience.  It 
was  not  meant  merely  to  stir  or  to  satisfy  the  sense  of 
beauty  and  harmony,  but  to  implant  in  the  emotions 
and  the  imagination  the  love  of  the  future  and  the 
passion  for  rising  in  the  scale  of  existence.  I  grew 
ashamed  to  think  that  I  had  attributed  to  this  wonder- 
ful people  the  frivolity  and  even  lowness  of  aim  that  I 
had  so  often  seen  in  European  art.  Here  was  a  drama 
that  the  West  had  not  even  a  conception  of.  At  its 
best  the  stage  of  Europe  professed  to  educate  by  repre- 
senting heroic  scenes  from  the  past,  by  evolving  from 
them  lessons  for  the  audience,  and  by  stirring  their 
enthusiasm  for  great  deeds  of  history  or  myth.  In  its 
commonest  mood  it  reproduced  in  mimic  form  some 
scene  or  action  from  contemporary  life.  At  its  worst 
it  was  but  a  pander  to  the  survivals  of  a  gross  and  ani- 
mal past.  What  I  now  thought  of  as  the  Limanoran 
stage  was  wholly  occupied  with  the  future,  so  far  as  it 
was  a  possible  evolution  from  the  present.  The  noblest 
ideal  that  the  imagination  of  the  race  could  shape  was 
brought  dramatically  before  the  people  that  their 
thoughts  and  ambitions  might  be  fixed  on  something 
beyond  themselves. 

For  this  high  purpose  and  not  for  luxury  or  personal 
enjoyment  their  sculpture  and  painting  and  music  had 


Pioneering  455 

been  developed,  and  the  newest  discoveries  and  inven- 
tions of  science  had  been  brought  to  their  aid.  There 
was  no  objection  to  what  gave  pleasure;  but  to  spend 
the  thought  and  effort  of  the  fully  developed  human 
mind  on  that  alone  was,  they  held,  a  degradation. 
Strenuous  endeavour  towards  a  higher  and  better  future 
was  the  note  that  characterised  their  pursuits.  But,  if 
they  could  add  attractiveness  to  the  prosecution  of  the 
aim,  the  task  was  all  the  easier;  if  they  could  make 
the  path  ahead  beautiful  and  pleasant  so  as  to  decoy  the 
reluctant  senses  onwards,  the  pace  would  be  all  the 
swifter. 

Even  with  this  high  aim,  I  could  not  understand  how 
this  people,  who  loathed  all  pretence,  could  condescend 
to  their  dramatic  art;  for  on  this  stage  of  Loomiefa 
were  members  of  their  community  representing  in  their 
persons  what  they  were  not  and  could  not  be  for  many 
ages.  And  I  had  heard  them  often  decry  the  histri- 
onic art  as  one  that  encouraged  in  the  actors  a  habit  of 
delighting  in  mere  semblance  and  superficial  show,  a 
habit  that  is  the  basis  of  hypocrisy  and  deceit;  whilst 
the  love  of  mimicry  and  pageantry,  I  had  been  led  to 
believe,  had  vanished  from  the  island  at  one  of  the  last 
purgations  of  the  race. 

The  seeming  contradiction  was  afterwards  explained. 
As  one  of  the  necessary  steps  in  my  initiation  into  the 
privileges  and  duties  of  the  mature  citizen  I  was  led 
behind  the  scenes.  Through  the  gorge  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  valley  I  passed  into  a  great  hall  that  seemed 
to  me  a  combination  of  a  museum  and  workshop. 
Here  were  the  youth  of  the  Loomiamo  and  the  Fra- 
loomiamo  at  work  upon  automata  and  the  elaborate  ma- 
chinery that  would  guide  their  motions.  Had  I  kept 
at  a  distance  from   them   as  they  worked,   I  would 


456  Limanora 

have  thought  that  the  play  of  human  sculpture  was 
being  again  enacted,  such  exact  reproductions  of  the 
human  system  were  the  figures  that  grew  under  their 
hands.  In  one  section  stood  thousands  of  what  I 
would  have  called  statues,  which  had  served  in  the 
publication  of  former  books.  In  another  the  puppets 
were  going  through  dramatic  scenes  by  way  of  experi- 
mentation, and  in  many  the  illusion  was  complete;  I 
should  have  said  that  human  beings  were  talking  and 
acting.  In  others  there  was  some  imperfection,  and 
there  one  could  see  that  they  were  all  mere  fantoccini 
galvanised  into  life.  In  a  third  section  the  tissues  and 
parts  that  were  to  make  mimic  men  and  women  were 
being  manufactured  ;  the  workers  and  artists  could 
draw  on  Rimla  for  as  much  force  as  they  needed,  whilst 
the  advice  of  the  scientific  families  was  at  their  com- 
mand. The  machinery  of  the  great  workshop  was 
bewildering  in  its  complexity  and  refinement.  The 
finest  tissue  or  nerve  of  the  human  brain  could  be 
here  imitated  so  that  under  a  microscope  I  would  have 
said  it  was  part  of  a  living  body. 

After  all  it  was  only  the  acting  of  marionettes  that  I 
had  seen  upon  the  stage  in  the  valley.  But  it  was 
greatly  aided  by  another  department  where  the  pio- 
neering families  cultivated  the  art  and  science  of 
illusions.  They  could  imitate  the  human  voice  at  any 
point  in  the  valley  measured  to  the  fraction  of  an  inch; 
they  could  reproduce  any  scene  of  history,  of  contem- 
porary existence,  or  of  futuritive  fiction  so  exactly, 
making  it  so  full  of  the  lights  and  shadows  of  life  and 
of  the  developments  of  all  advance,  that  none  of  the 
senses  unaided  by  the  reasoning  and  analytic  faculties 
could  assert  that  the  men  and  women  were  not  living, 
and  that  their  actions  and  words  were  not  real.     Even 


Pioneering  457 

the  electric  sense  could  be  deluded  by  the  impulses  man- 
ufactured by  these  machinists  and  illusionists;  it  would 
take  the  magnetic  thrills  it  received  for  genuine  en- 
thusiasm and  sympathy  from  the  mind  of  a  man  or  from 
a  crowd.  This  department  was  even  more  important 
than  the  factory  of  puppets;  for  it  made  the  play  of  the 
marionettes  look  still  more  human  on  the  stage.  After 
all  it  was  not  the  puppets  themselves  I  had  watched 
with  such  breathless  excitement,  but  a  mere  illusory 
picture  of  their  proceedings;  the  illusion  was  far  more 
lifelike  than  the  play  of  the  marionettes  themselves. 
So  much  stress  did  they  lay  on  stirring  the  imagination 
and  emotions  of  the  race  in  favour  of  the  ideals  of  the 
future  that  half  the  work  of  these  two  families  con- 
sisted in  the  dramatic  publication  of  their  books. 

The  next  sacred  book  I  saw  produced  in  Loomiefa 
would  have  of  itself  persuaded  me  that  this  people 
could  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  histrionic  art  or  any 
art  that  would  encourage  the  habit  of  pretence  and 
show  in  the  individual  nature.  It  was  called  the  book 
of  Human  Transparency  and  described  the  various 
methods  by  which  the  inner  working  of  the  human 
brain  could  be  made  patent  to  Limanoran  senses.  The 
tissues  could  be  clarified;  the  significance  of  every 
fibre  and  nerve  could  be  made  familiar  to  all  as  an 
essential  part  of  their  education;  the  eye,  the  ear,  and 
the  firla  could  be  made  more  subtle  and  acute  in  their 
perceptions,  till  at  last  they  were  able  to  tell  in  a  mo- 
ment everything  that  was  proceeding  beneath  the  skull 
and  within  the  heart.  What  was  done  slowly  and  pain- 
fully by  the  medical  elders  with  the  help  of  their  instru- 
ments, their  hypnotic  powers,  and  the  interpretation 
of  dreams,  every  man  would  be  able  to  do  instantane- 
ously, and  without  extraneous  aid,  exceptional  wisdom, 


458  Limanora 

or  occult  powers.  The  general  drift  of  a  neighbour's 
emotions  was  known  to  everyone  through  his  magnetic 
senses,  but  not  the  particular  intention  or  thought; 
this  would  be  known  only  after  the  long  course  of 
training  and  development  mapped  out  in  the  book  of 
Human  Transparency. 

One  of  the  chief  ethical  purposes  that  had  in  recent 
times  been  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the  community  was  to 
eject  from  the  human  system  all  elements  and  processes 
that  were  offensive  to  the  finer  feelings  and  senses, 
everything  in  fact  that  a  man  or  woman  might  be 
ashamed  of  or  wish  to  conceal.  The  new  book  of  the 
time  aimed  at  extending  this  to  the  operations  of 
thought  and  emotion.  To  get  clear  of  the  waste  pro- 
ducts of  the  mind  in  a  way  that  would  be  inoffensive  to 
others  was  an  ideal  they  had  not  yet  been  able  to  enter- 
tain. They  had  learned  with  much  pain  and  self- 
denial  the  habit  of  concealing  the  crude  processes  of 
thought  that  lead  to  what  is  worth  saying  or  doing.  It 
was  one  of  the  things  they  were  most  ashamed  of  in 
looking  over  the  history  or  the  memorials  of  their  far 
past  to  see  the  vast  amount  of  the  raw  digestion  of 
thought  and  of  the  refuse  of  emotion  that  was  made 
public,  and  even  put  into  literature  meant  to  be  per- 
manent. Most  of  the  orations  and  magazine  articles, 
and  ultimately  most  of  the  books  that  had  been  pro- 
duced in  past  ages  were  much  the  same  as  if  the 
stomach  and  intestines  of  the  speaker  or  writer  had 
been  anatomised  and  laid  open  with  all  their  offensive 
processes  to  the  gaze  of  spectators.  One  of  the  most 
beneficent  events  of  their  later  history  had  been  a  con- 
flagration in  their  valley  of  memories;  for  it  had  wiped 
out  of  existence  the  libraries  and  art  accumulations  of 
many  centuries,  of  which  they  had  come  to  be  ashamed. 


Pioneering  459 

They  could  not  understand  the  long-past  stage  of  their 
civilisation,  in  which  men,  and  especially  young  men, 
had  been  so  proud  of  displaying  the  mere  debris  of 
their  worst  and  crudest  processes  of  thought;  it  had 
actually  been  the  case  that  most  of  the  literature  and 
art  had  been  produced  by  youths  under  fifty  years  of 
age,  who  had  not  yet  begun  to  appreciate  the  differ- 
ence between  the  processes  of  thinking  and  the  results 
of  thinking;  and  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  feat- 
ures of  that  period  was  that  the  most  applauded  literary 
and  artistic  productions,  those  that  were  supposed  to 
be  most  distinctively  the  outcome  of  what  the}'  called 
genius,  were  the  work  of  boys  and  girls,  mere  children 
under  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Natures  that  should 
still  have  been  in  the  nursery  for  many  a  year  were 
stimulated  to  address  the  public  and  seek  applause  with 
work  that  was  merely  tentative  and  disciplinary.  The 
result  was  that,  on  the  one  hand,  one  half  of  the  most 
original  and  promising  minds  racked  themselves  to 
death  years  before  they  should  have  faced  life,  whilst 
on  the  other  a  juvenile  ideal  was  set  before  literature 
and  art,  and  boys  and  girls  became  their  chief  audience 
and  most  powerful  arbiters.  They  felt  heartily  ashamed 
of  that  singular  stage  in  their  development,  and  were 
glad  to  have  accidental  fire  come  to  their  assistance  in 
huddling  its  products  out  of  sight. 

One  of  the  first  instincts  they  evolved  after  the  series 
of  purgations  was  the  desire  to  conceal  within  their 
minds  what  was  crude  or  mere  process  in  thinking, 
and,  still  more,  what  was  mere  waste  product  and  re- 
fuse of  the  mind.  Instead  of  being  eager  to  speak  out 
or  publish  all  that  came  into  the  thoughts,  bad  or  good, 
they  grew  shy  of  public  exhibition  of  their  projects  and 
schemes  till  they  had  been  shaped  by  long  years  of 


460  Limanora 

thinking  and  experimenting,  and  criticised  and  checked 
by  the  caution  and  wisdom  of  their  full}'  matured 
nature.  Publication  became  the  last  resort  of  the 
mature  and  old  instead  of  the  first  ambition  of  the 
young,  so  afraid  were  they  of  exhibiting  what  might 
be  crude  or  offensive.  Even  in  the  give  and  take  of 
conversation  and  social  intercourse  they  preferred  long 
periods  of  silence  to  the  utterance  of  truisms  and  com- 
monplaces. The  trivial  and  conventional  in  speech,  as 
in  life,  was  what  they  abhorred,  as  revealing  an  intel- 
lectual nature  on  the  road  back  to  the  infertility  and 
childishness  of  barbarism,  the  elaborate  mechanism  of 
thought  whizzing  round  without  connection  with  what 
represents  work. 

But  now  the  book  of  Human  Transparency  proposed 
as  an  ideal  to  eject  from  the  system  every  process  of 
thought  and  feeling  that  they  might  blush  to  let  others 
see.  If  the  nature  was  made  transparent  then  would 
it  become  a  self-preserving  instinct  to  develop  their 
natures  in  this  direction.  Everything  crude  or  false 
or  offensive,  that  might  begin  to  show  itself  in  their 
minds,  would  be  at  once  suppressed  before  it  got  head- 
way, instead  of  having  to  be  slowly  reasoned  out  of 
existence  with  the  aid  of  the  moral  instincts.  This 
accomplished,  the  race  would  be  able  to  take  another 
great  leap  forward.  The  advance  of  their  processes  of 
thought  and  feeling  to  the  level  of  the  former  results 
of  them  would  give  them  a  higher  point  of  view  from 
which  to  look  forth  into  the  future. 

A  mediate  book,  soon  afterward  produced  by  one  of 
the  Loomiamo,  supplied  one  of  the  steps  towards  the 
consummation  of  this  ideal.  It  was  the  book  of  Ethe- 
real Nutriment.     It  took  as  basis  a  former  discover}', 


Pioneering  461 

the  liquefaction  of  air,  and  showed  how,  by  similar 
methods,  the  medium  that  filled  interstellar  space  could 
be  made  available  in  the  halls  of  nutriment  and  medi- 
cation, and  how  it  could  be  manufactured  in  such  a 
concentrated  form  as  to  allow7  of  its  being  poured  along 
conduits  and  imbibed  by  the  human  organs  through 
the  mouth  and  nostrils,  just  as  air  was.  For  some 
time  the  atmosphere  had  been  distilled  in  liquid  form, 
and  supplied  to  the  houses  of  the  citizens  absolutely 
rid  of  all  impurities.  Nay,  it  had  been  made  a  fountain 
of  power,  transmissible  to  long  distances,  and  available 
in  a  form  that  was  easily  carried.  Compressed  and 
liquefied,  it  rapidly  returned  to  the  gaseous  form  as 
soon  as  the  pressure  began  to  be  removed.  And  the  re- 
equilibrising  of  the  liquid  to  the  expansion  of  the  sur- 
rounding air  had  been  made  to  supply  vast  quantities 
of  power  in  the  centre  of  force.  The  new  book  pro- 
posed to  find  in  the  compression  and  liquefication  of  the 
ether  an  infinite  fountain  of  force  that  would  enable 
their  civilisation  to  progress  at  an  ever-accelerating 
pace. 

But  the  most  immediate  effect  proposed  by  the  book 
was  to  enable  the  Limanorans  to  etherealise  their  bodies 
by  introducing  the  liquefied  ether  into  their  dietary. 
The  result  would  be  that  the  tissues  would  grow  more 
diaphanous.  They  had  already  been  able  to  transport 
some  of  the  universal  medium  in  their  anchored  va- 
cuum faleenas  from  the  outer  margin  of  the  atmosphere 
to  their  laboratories,  and  now  they  had  been  able  to 
find  it  in  their  manufactured  vacuums.  With  the 
enormous  power  they  had  in  Rimla  they  could  easily 
compress  it  into  forms  that  would  touch  the  senses, 
and  enter  into  the  blood  and  the  formation  of  the  tissues. 
As  the  medium  of  light  and  magnetism  it  was  almost 


462  Limanora 

certain  to  make  the  human  body  more  translucent  than 
it  had  ever  been.  All  the  tissues,  even  the  osseous, 
had  always  been  pervious  to  light,  but  many  of  them 
not  apparently  so  to  the  untrained  human  eye.  Re- 
cently their  lavolans  had  shown  that  by  means  of  cer- 
tain kinds  of  luminous  rays  the  human  system  gave  up 
its  most  hidden  secrets  to  the  human  eye.  But  once 
they  were  able  to  chemicalise  and  compress  the  luinin- 
iferous  ether  into  palpable  form,  and  to  mingle  it  with 
the  volatile  food  that  could  be  taken  into  their  bodies 
as  they  breathed,  there  would  be  no  need  of  lavolans 
or  other  apparatus  to  see  the  inner  movements  of  the 
human  system. 

The  sanitary  effects  of  this  advance  would  be  no 
mean  result.  The  medical  council  would  have  much 
of  their  time  set  free  for  their  ever-pressing  investiga- 
tions; they  would  not  be  needed  for  the  diagnosis  of 
deteriorative  symptoms  in  the  tissues;  each  individual 
would  be  able,  by  the  aid  of  magnifying  mirrors  to 
examine  for  himself  what  was  going  on  in  any  part  of 
his  system;  and  every  man  had  sufficient  physiological 
and  medical  knowledge  to  understand  the  beginnings 
of  all  the  ordinary  diseases,  and,  if  he  recognised  them, 
to  prescribe  for  himself  the  hall  in  Oomalefa  that  he 
should  frequent  in  order  to  check  them.  Now  it  would 
be  only  the  symptoms  of  obscure  or  new  diseases  or 
deteriorations  of  the  system  that  the  medical  elders 
would  have  to  diagnose.  And  thus  they  would  have 
great  tracts  of  their  life  to  devote  to  new  discoveries, 
and  medical  science  was  certain  to  advance  more 
rapidly. 

Another  sanitary  effect  of  the  new  permeability  to 
light  would  be  to  render  the  human  body  less  open  to 
diseases  either  known  or  unknown.     For  it  had  long 


Pioneering  463 

been  a  commonplace  of  medical  science  that  sunlight 
reduced  the  vitality,  and  therefore  the  virulence,  of  all 
noxious  microbes;  after  nightfall  their  power  increased 
tenfold.  Wherever  the  sun's  rays  could  not  reach  by 
day,  there  diseases  multiplied  and  festered.  And  one 
of  the  chief  reasons  why,  in  their  far  past  history,  in- 
curable maladies  were  generally  internal,  was  that 
sunshine  could  not  get  to  the  parts  aflected  except  in 
a  feeble  and  straggling  way.  The  fact  that  they  had 
fixed  themselves  deeply  in  the  tissues  before  they  could 
be  observed,  and  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  at  their 
roots  without  cutting  a  passage  in  to  them  had  been 
generally  accepted  as  the  explanation  of  their  fre- 
quency and  deadliness.  But  it  had  been  one  of  the 
most  important  discoveries  of  the  new  era  after  the 
purgation  period,  that  pure  oxygen  and  pure  sunlight 
were  the  most  medicative  of  all  things,  and  that  the 
nearer  any  affected  part  could  get  to  them  the  sooner 
it  healed.  The  new  book  of  Ethereal  Nutrition  pointed 
out  that  one  of  the  results  of  rendering  the  human  sys- 
tem easily  pervious  to  light  would  be  to  rid  its  internal 
parts  of  all  trace  of  immedicability ;  sunlight,  permeat- 
ing the  inner  organs  and  tissues,  would  make  any 
noxious  microbes  that  might  lodge  in  them  innocuous. 

The  reciprocity  of  suggestion  and  discovery  was 
never  more  saliently  exemplified  than  by  one  of  the  less 
immediate  results  pointed  out  by  this  book  as  likely  to 
flow  from  the  attainment  of  its  ideal.  Volatile  ether- 
food,  gradually  introduced  into  the  halls  of  nutrition 
and  gradually  increased,  would,  step  by  step,  bring  the 
human  organs  to  adapt  themselves  to  existence  outside 
of  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth.  For  a  long  time  they 
would    be  amphibious,    with  organs  adapted  to  both 


464  Limanora 

aerial  and  ethereal  life.  Even  as  it  was,  the  human 
body  revealed  in  it  traces  of  having  already  passed 
through  an  amphibious  stage.  There  were  in  the  neck 
glands  that  were  the  remains  of  gills,  which  must 
have  once  belonged  to  an  aquatic  habit;  besides,  there 
was  the  last  vestige  of  an  eye  in  the  back  of  the  neck 
still  extant  in  the  pineal  gland,  and  this  could  have 
been  of  use  only  when  the  ancestor  of  man  was  passing 
through  the  stage  of  a  water-animal  which  must 
watch  his  enemies  from  the  surface,  his  body  being 
submerged  and  out  of  sight.  Step  by  step  he  aban- 
doned the  water  for  a  littoral,  and  even  at  first  arboreal, 
habit;  the  result  was  that  the  gills  came  to  be  unused 
and  closed  up,  and  the  upward -looking  eye  was  useless 
in  a  head  that  was  held  upright  and  could  be  turned 
swiftly  in  all  directions;  still  man  retains  the  memory 
of  the  aquatic  stage  of  his  ancestry  in  the  ease  with 
which  he  learns  to  swim,  and  in  his  love  of  a  life  on 
the  sea;  whilst  an  occasional  birth  in  more  barbarous 
tribes  with  the  webbed  toes  of  a  water-animal  still 
showing  reveals  his  ancestry  atavistically. 

What  was  to  hinder  him,  now  he  had  the  mastery  of 
himself  and  his  destiny,  becoming  again  amphibious 
in  a  new  way  ?  Without  guidance  of  his  own,  driven 
only  by  the  forces  of  nature,  he  had  risen  out  of  the 
waters  that  once  covered  the  earth,  and  taken  to  dry 
land;  for  a  long  period  he  had  been  able  to  live  at  will 
in  either  of  two  elements,  air  and  water.  Where 
lay  the  difficulty  in  making  himself  again  capable  of 
living  in  two  elements,  in  air  and  in  the  luminiferous 
ether  ?  In  prehistoric  times  nature  had  worked  her 
evolution  in  his  system  by  long  and  slow  stages.  But 
in  L,imanora  progress  had  become  lightning-swift,  and 
would  again  and  again  increase  its  pace.     For  there 


Pioneering  465 

man  had  taken  command  of  nature,  and  made  her  ac- 
commodate her  step  to  his  stride.  She  was  his  willing 
servant,  nimble  as  her  own  electric  flash.  He  could 
now  compress  the  work  of  centuries  into  hours  by  his 
concentration  of  power  in  Rimla,  and  by  his  countless 
ingenious  contrivances.  Thought  was  the  lord  of  time 
as  of  space,  and  thought  was  now  his  essence  and 
characteristic.  He  could,  if  he  wished,  contract  the 
process  that  used  to  cover  geological  ages  into  a  gen- 
eration. There  was  no  reason  why  he  should  not  be- 
come amphibious  again  in  a  less  grovelling  sense  than 
of  old  within  the  few  centuries  of  a  lifetime.  This  was 
the  purport  of  another  production  of  this  time,  the  book 
of  Amphibious  Existence. 

It  was  a  mediate  book,  one  bridging  the  gulf  between 
things  as  they  were  and  the  far  ideals  held  out  to  the 
race  by  the  Fraloomiamo.  It  helped  to  point  out  the 
steps  towards  the  realisation  of  one  of  the  most 
cherished  productions  of  the  age,  the  Book  of  Emigra- 
tion. It  had  been  many  years  in  the  maturer  minds  of 
the  community  before  I  was  introduced  to  Eoomiefa 
and  its  wonders,  and  it  had  recently  been  much  modi- 
fied by  the  discoveries  of  the  new  outburst  of  energy 
that  followed  Choktroo's  attempt  at  invasion.  Its 
ideal  was  to  enable  the  Eimanorans  of  that  or  some 
future  generation  to  travel  thought  space  and  reach 
other  stars. 

Long  ago  a  publication  that  had  prepared  for,  and 
demanded  this,  was  the  book  of  the  Destin}-  of  the 
Earth.  It  had  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  peo- 
ple when  first  produced ;  for  it  dramatically  painted  the 
horror  of  death  that  would  settle  on  this  globe.  It  had 
been  proved  by  both  astronomers  and  physicists  that 


466  Limanora 

our  orb  was  gradually  losing  its  heat  by  the  same  pro- 
cess which  had  brought  its  originally  glowing  surface 
to  a  state  that  would  allow  of  life  settling  upon  it. 
First,  vegetation  and  animal  life  were  found  at  the 
poles,  where  the  lessened  heat  of  the  sun  made  the  ter- 
restrial heat  endurable;  then  they  crept  their  slow  way 
onwards  to  the  equator,  till  the  whole  surface  of  the 
earth  teemed  with  vitality,  at  first  developing  towards 
vastitude  in  the  warm  vapours,  in  later  periods  towards 
concentration  of  energy  in  special  points  of  the  animal 
body,  and  especially  in  the  head.  Round  the  poles  at 
last  settled  the  ice-sheet,  advancing  at  long  intervals 
towards  the  tropics,  now  in  one  hemisphere  and  again 
in  the  other,  according  as  the  one  or  the  other  was 
farthest  in  winter  from  the  sun  during  an  extensive 
period.  The  hyperborean  powers  shepherded  the 
growing  life  of  the  earth  down  into  her  central  belt. 
But  the  brumal  shepherds  of  the  one  side  of  the  world 
receded  as  those  of  the  other  advanced  with  their  arctic 
winds  and  fleecy  drifts.  Within  measurable  time  this 
alternation  would  cease,  and  the  glacial  fences  would 
move  forward  together  north  and  south,  and  pen  the 
overcrowded  human  life  and  energy  with  all  its  ene- 
mies into  the  narrow  equatorial  belt. 

It  was  the  drama  of  these  boreal  limitations  that  the 
book  of  Terrestrial  Destiny  pictured.  The  teeming 
life  weltered  over  sea  and  land  alike  in  search  of  foot- 
hold and  nutrition.  No  inch  of  tropical  earth  was 
sacred  from  brute  appetite.  Animal  and  man  fought 
with  venomous  passion  for  dear  life.  Not  animalculae 
alone  but  beasts,  and  even  man,  became  parasitic. 
Creatures  that  had  loved  a  free  existence  in  vast  prairies 
or  forests  learned  to  nest  and  hibernate  in  the  folds 
and  hollows  of  larger  animals.     L,ife  swarmed  over  life 


Pioneering  467 

till  for  lack  of  food  it  began  to  fail.  Man  crept  with 
loathsome  beasts  of  prey  into  caves  of  the  earth,  and 
grew  as  loathsome  in  his  troglodytic  habits.  On  moved 
the  brumal  prison  walls.  The  sun  shrivelled  in  the  sky 
and  withdrew  his  heat.  Nothing  lived  that  was  not 
arctic  not  even  amongst  the  still-free  birds  of  the  air. 
Man  finally  ceased  to  have  facult}'  enough  to  notice  the 
shrinking  of  the  already  narrow  enclosure  that  was 
soon  to  be  his  grave.  Feebly  the  last  remnants  of  the 
race  stole  forth  into  the  struggling  rays  of  daylight  and 
killed  everything  of  life  they  could  find.  Only  in  the 
sea  still  lived  their  possible  prey  and  food,  and  thither 
they  dared  not  go  beneath  the  gloom  of  the  thick  ice. 
The  cannibal  habit  came  upon  man  again  and  no  re- 
lationship or  love  restrained  his  appetite.  The  last 
scene  of  the  drama  was  the  death  of  the  last  man,  the 
grave  of  the  remnants  of  his  race;  where  he  fell,  there 
he  lay  embalmed;  and  his  tomb  was  the  earth's  own 
winding-sheet.  The  meagre  relics  of  terrestrial  life 
soon  followed  him  into  silence  and  darkness,  and 
through  the  sunless  night  the  dead  orb  wheeled  round 
the  extinguished  cinder  which  had  for  so  many  geo- 
logical ages  given  it  light  and  life. 

The  publication  of  the  book  would  have  frozen  the 
hearts  within  them,  had  not  the  Limanorans  known 
that  that  was  not  the  end  of  all.  They  saw  that  the 
alternations  of  death  and  life  were  not  confined  to  the 
vegetal  and  animal  species  around  them.  The  same 
pendulum  swung  through  the  whole  cosmos.  The 
universe  which  was  dead  now  would  live  again  in 
blazing  rounds  of  vapour  that  would  solidify  and  cool 
till  life  could  settle  on  the  new  orbs  again.  Dead  it 
only  seemed.  For  it  never  rested  but  revolved  round 
some  centre  revolving  also,  and  too  distant  for  man  to 


468  Limanora 

see  or  feel.  Out  of  these  motions  would  come  resusci- 
tation. After  millions  of  ages,  that  are  but  as  moments 
in  the  history  of  the  cosmos,  it  would  encounter  an- 
other exhausted  universe,  and  from  the  collision  would 
a  new  system  of  glowing  worlds  arise,  ready  for  another 
series  of  vital  colonisations  from  the  limitless  life  of 
sidereal  space. 

It  was  this  knowledge  that  took  the  sting  out  of  their 
sadness  over  the  new  book.  Yet  the  fate  of  man,  age 
by  age  more  closely  penned  in  by  the  walls  of  his 
glacial-coffin,  and  drawn  back  by  the  eddy  of  time  into 
his  primeval  savagery,  left  a  loophole  for  despair  and 
palsy  to  enter  into  their  lives.  Were  they  to  let  their 
descendants  fall  back  again  into  the  beast,  whence  their 
ancestors  had  come  ?  Was  this  glacial  prison  and  tomb 
to  remain  a  possibility  and  a  shadow  on  even  the  dis- 
tant horizon  of  their  race  ?  Once  before  had  their  an- 
cestry evaded  such  a  fate,  penned  between  the  invasive 
glaciers  and  the  sea;  once  before  had  the  race  com- 
mitted their  fates  to  an  element  they  feared  and  hated, 
lest  the  encroaching  ice-sheet  should  smother  their 
civilisation  and  reduce  their  vitality  to  the  level  of  bar- 
barism and  at  last  annihilation.  Better  to  let  the  race 
die  out  at  its  noblest  than  leave  it  to  go  down  into  such 
an  inferno.  Nothing  now  so  made  them  shudder  as  the 
prospect  of  retrogression,  however  slight.  But  to  think 
of  their  civilisation  ebbing  away  from  their  posterity 
before  the  waning  power  of  the  sun  and  the  earth,  to 
think  of  the  lapse  of  their  own  intellectual  mastery  of 
nature  into  decrepitude  and  putrescence,  was  to  turn 
their  hearts  to  stone. 

Under  such  a  prospect  they  could  not  sit  in  intellect- 
ual paralysis.     For  years  the  imagination  of  the  race 


Pioneering  469 

worked  feverishly  towards  its  rescue  from  such  an 
appalling  destiny,  and  ever}'  new  scientific  advance 
brought  forth  a  new  book  of  Emigration.  Their  one 
thought  of  escape  was  taken  from  their  old  migration 
out  of  the  reach  of  antarctic  glacial  advance.  To  sail 
out  from  the  earth  and  commit  themselves  to  the 
strange  conditions  and  uncertainties  of  a  new  element 
seemed  no  more  hazardous  to  them  now  than  in  their 
primeval  stage  of  land-civilisation  to  launch  out  with 
their  lives  in  their  hands  upon  the  unknown  and  terri- 
fying ocean.  It  was  urged  that  there  was  precedent 
and  basis  for  their  marine  adventure  in  that  their  an- 
cestry had  been  amphibious,  and  that  one  of  the  prim- 
eval species  out  of  which  they  had  come  had  been 
aquatic.  The  reply  was  that  the  case  was  parallel  and 
not  antagonistic.  The  original  vital  germs  that  set- 
tled on  the  cooling  surface  of  the  globe  must  have 
come  out  of  sidereal  space,  and  must  have  lived  in  the 
element  that  they  would  have  to  cross  in  emigrating 
from  the  glacial  orb  again;  and  from  these  vital  germs 
they,  and  all  living  terrestrial  things,  had  evolved.  It 
was  only  one  stage  farther  back  in  the  history  of  life; 
the  precedent  was  the  same,  though  the  training  and 
modification  of  the  system  would  have  to  be  more 
strenuous  and  drastic  than  the}-  had  been  before  the 
former  leap  was  taken  from  land  to  sea.  Preparation 
had  already  been  made;  for  they  had  learned  aerial 
navigation  far  more  thoroughly  than  they  had  ever 
known  the  mastery  of  the  sea.  Their  air-ships  had 
ventured  right  up  into  the  ether,  whilst  on  wings  they 
had  themselves  coasted  the  earth's  atmosphere.  No- 
thing was  impossible  to  intellect  which  had  mastered 
the  art  of  evolution. 

Recent  discovery  had  led  them  far  on  the  difficult 


47°  Limanora 

ascent  towards  safe  departure  from  the  surface  of  the 
world.  It  only  needed  ingenuity  and  development  to 
give  them  a  concentration  of  aerated  sustenance,  which 
would  enable  them  to  journey  for  ages  outside  of  an  at- 
mosphere such  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  inhabit; 
they  had  the  germ  of  this  in  the  nuts  of  the  alfarene  or 
oxygen-shrub ;  recently  their  chemists  had  been  able  to 
reproduce  the  essence  of  them,  and  to  compress  it  into 
microscopic  globules.  Not  till  a  later  age  of  discover}' 
did  they  supersede  this  by  the  liquefaction  and  solidifi- 
cation of  air.  They  were  rapidly  adapting  their  own 
systems  to  the  vacuums  they  could  produce  and  to  the 
rarefied  atmosphere  high  above  the  clouds.  They  were 
introducing  the  quintessence  of  the  ether  into  their 
halls  of  sustenance  and  medication,  and  thus  accustom- 
ing their  organs  and  tissues  to  conditions  which  they 
would  meet  continually  on  their  voyage  through  sid- 
ereal space.  The  next  generation  would  practically 
be  amphibious,  able  to  live  in  the  luminiferous  ether 
with  occasional  return  to  an  atmosphere  such  as  sur- 
rounds the  earth.  Every  new  age  would  enable  them 
to  make  longer  and  longer  excursions  away  from  the 
bosom  of  mother-earth  out  towards  the  influence  of 
other  planets.  Every  new  generation  would  have  more 
elastic  and  adaptable  tissues  and  organs,  which  would 
fit  varied  pressure  and  varied  mediums  of  vitality. 
And  with  all  this  the  Eimanoran  body  would  grow 
lighter  at  the  same  time  as  it  would  grow  more  consol- 
idated, coherent,  and  indissoluble.  But  most  important 
of  all  was  the  new  command  of  gravitation  given  them 
by  the  discovery  of  the  varying  sensitiveness  or  non- 
sensitiveness  of  certain  rays  to  magnetism  and  gravity 
according  to  conditions  that  were  in  human  hands. 
There  were  limitless  possibilities  in  this  for  sidereal 


Pioneering  471 

migration.  And  already  out  of  it  had  come  the  lavo- 
lamma  or  gravitation  power-machine. 

The  new  book  of  Emigration  brought  all  these  dis- 
coveries and  thoughts  into  bearing  on  its  problem  and 
harmonised  them,  and  developed  them  by  means  of 
imaginative  suggestion.  The  drama  of  its  publication 
drew  the  bulk  of  the  people  to  Loomiefa.  There  we 
saw  a  representation  of  Lilaroma  itself,  piercing  the 
sky  in  pure  and  lonely  grandeur.  Near  its  top  lay 
moored  a  fleet  of  faleenas  of  strikingly  new  form  and 
material ;  they  were  as  light  as  foam-bubbles,  and  as 
opalescently  transparent;  within  each  of  them  we  could 
see  stored  quantities  of  alfarene  globules,  that  seemed 
enough  to  serve  a  people  for  thousands  of  years;  in 
each  we  saw  a  new  anti-gravitation  engine,  ready  to 
deal  with  every  form  of  attraction  and  repulsion  in  the 
wide  ether  and  turn  it  into  available  power.  Men  and 
women  in  Limanoran  form,  but  as  transparent  and  as 
imponderable  and  buoyant  as  their  new  ships,  floated 
round  the  ethereal  fleet.  Now  and  again  a  flash  of  arti- 
ficial light  would  dart  across  the  scene,  and  along  it,  as 
if  impelled  by  it,  ran  with  lightning-swiftness  one  of 
the  rainbow-flecked  faleenas,  bearing  its  full  freight. 
We  could  see  the  lavolamma  work,  and  we  concluded 
that  there  was  a  new  form  of  it  that  could  take  advan- 
tage of  beams  of  light  to  travel  with  them,  as  an  elec- 
tric impulse  travels  along  them.  Innumerable  evolu- 
tions with  the  ethereal  fleet  took  place.  The  sublimated 
Limanorans  of  the  future  seemed  to  have  complete 
command  of  the  new  ships  and  of  the  new  power  over 
light  and  gravitation. 

Suddenly  came  tremors  in  the  framework  of  the 
great  mountain.  It  rocked  like  a  buoy  in  the  uneasy 
surge  of  a  reef.      Its  snows  fell  in  husre  avalanches. 


472  Limanora 

Then  the  conical  top  was  ejected  into  the  sky  like  a 
shot  from  a  cannon.  The  air  was  thick  with  dust  and 
stones.  But  when  it  cleared  and  great  flames  shot 
forth  and  licked  the  face  of  heaven,  we  could  see  far 
above  their  reach  the  rainbow-coloured  fleet  speeding 
aloft,  filled  with  their  tiny  diaphanous  sailors. 

The  sceue  changed,  and  we  saw  universes  set  in  the 
vault  of  heaven,  and  across  the  space  between  them  we 
could  discern  minute  specks  of  light  flashing  mercurial 
as  thought.  Behind  them  in  dim  eclipse  sped  the 
noctambulant  earth,  still  eddying  round  the  central 
spot  of  light;  now  it  broke  forth  in  ragged  coruscation, 
only  to  sink  back  into  pitchy  gloom.  Yet  a  thread  of 
light  stretched  forth  to  the  luminous  atoms  that  flitted 
on  through  the  night.  Nearer  they  came  and,  one  by 
one,  grew  more  distinct  and  larger.  At  last  we  could 
see  that  it  was  the  fleet  on  its  way  from  the  top  of 
L,ilaroma.  Within  each  ether-ship  we  could  make  out 
the  movements  of  the  sailors  as  they  bent  its  way  this 
side  and  that.  The  light  from  a  brilliant  star  in  the 
new  universe  made  play  upon  the  surface  of  their  fa- 
leenas.  They  had  caught  in  its  rays,  and  were  speed- 
ing as  swift  as  light  towards  the  now-definite  goal. 
The  luminiferous  current  bore  them  steadily  on,  their 
little  engines  palpitating  with  the  impulse  of  the  new 
light  and  the  new  gravitation. 

Again  the  scene  changed,  and  we  looked  upon  the 
surface  of  a  new  orb,  more  advanced  in  vital  develop- 
ment, more  highly  organised  than  the  earth  with  which 
we  were  familiar.  We  saw  the  inhabitants  in  crowds, 
face  upwards  into  the  night,  all  eyes  upon  some  distant 
star.  The  excitement  was  rising  like  a  tempest.  It 
seemed  as  if  the  object  on  which  they  gazed  were 
swiftly  approaching  them.     And  in  a  flash  there  swept 


Pioneering  473 

within  our  sight  the  fleet  of  prismatic  ether-ships,  like 
rainbows  in  the  light  of  another  sun.  They  stopped 
and  hovered  above  the  atmosphere.  We  saw  their 
crews  breathe  in  the  elements  in  which  they  floated. 
Lower  and  lower  they  came,  still  sounding  the  atmo- 
sphere and  testing  its  effects  upon  their  organs.  The 
absence  of  commotion  and  the  steady  descent  showed 
that  nothing  alien  to  their  systems  had  yet  been  en- 
countered. Out  of  their  faleenas  they  gazed  as  won- 
deringly  down  upon  the  new  star  as  its  sea  of  upturned 
faces  watched  their  slow  descent. 

The  scene  was  brought  still  nearer  to  our  eyes.  In- 
stead of  microscopic  foam-bells  floating  in  the  sky,  and 
microscopic  crowds  resting  on  the  surface  of  the  other 
world,  we  felt  present  at  the  meeting  of  these  creatures 
of  different  universes.  They  seemed  to  feel  conscious 
of  this  great  event  in  the  history  of  the  cosmos.  The 
dwellers  of  the  new  world  were  almost  paralysed  at 
first  with  wonder  at  these  beings  so  like  and  yet  so  un- 
like themselves;  they  could  recognise,  we  could  see  in 
their  friendly  faces,  the  divine  community  of  spirit; 
their  eyes,  as  soon  as  they  recovered  from  their  waking 
dream,  flashed  welcome  in  magnetic  fire;  there  was  no 
need  of  community  of  words  for  open  intercourse;  the 
dwellers  of  the  new  star  had  the  same  development  of 
electric  sense  as  the  Limanorans  had;  their  souls  could 
speak  without  a  sound  from  the  lips. 

Step  by  step  their  mutual  sympathy  grew  more 
definite,  more  cordial,  and  approximated  to  the  com- 
munication of  thought  and  fact.  Within  a  brief  period 
they  knew  enough  of  each  other's  language  to  tell  out 
their  whence  and  whither.  But  in  the  people  of  the 
new  star  the  language  was  that  of  feature  and  not  of 
tongue.     Over  their  faces  flashed  the  signals  of  thought 


474  Limanora 

as  well  as  of  emotion,  astonishing  the  newcomers  at  the 
rapidity  with  which  expression  flitted  over  their  feat- 
ures. Equally  astonished  were  their  hosts  to  hear  the 
countless  variety  of  tone  and  accent  come  from  the 
throats  of  the  strangers.  They  covered  their  ears  as 
if  shielding  them  from  the  assault  of  some  thunderous 
report.  Even  the  voyagers  shrank  from  the  voice  of 
their  own  spokesman.  And,  tone  it  down  as  he  would, 
still  was  it  too  loud  for  any  delicate  ear  to  endure. 
They  were  in  a  new  atmosphere  that  bore  sound  so 
quickly  and  clearly  as  to  make  a  whisper  reverberate 
like  thunder.  So  did  it  make  the  eyes  of  the  dwellers 
in  it  as  keen  and  far  in  sight  as  if  armed  with  the  most 
powerful  microscopes  and  telescopes.  The  slightest 
adjustment  of  them  and  their  lids  changed  them  back 
and  forth  from  distant  observation  to  near.  And  the 
same  translucency  marked  their  tissues  as  made  the 
inner  movements  of  the  newcomers'  heart  and  brain 
apparent.  There  was  needed  no  sound  to  interpret  the 
magnetic  messages  of  the  brain  along  its  nerves. 
Hosts  and  guests  were  seen  at  one,  familiar  as  lifelong 
friends  and  thrilling  each  other  with  the  strange  new 
experiences  of  their  history.  The  voyagers  from  earth 
soon  knew  why  the  use  of  the  tongue  and  throat  had 
been  abandoned  by  their  hosts  as  means  of  commun- 
ication; the  uncontrollable  volume  of  sound  offended 
their  hearing,  and  drove  them  to  develop  the  language 
of  eye  and  feature;  the  sight  grew  more  powerful  and 
adaptable  as  voice  and  ear  gave  up  their  share  of  the 
energy  and  sustenance  of  the  system;  their  tissues, 
too,  had  ever  been  to  a  large  extent  transparent  be- 
cause of  the  rarity  and  clearness  of  their  atmosphere, 
and  by  selection  and  training  they  had  been  able  to 
make  them  pellucid  as  they  now  were. 


Pioneering  475 

The  gleam  of  question  and  answer  showed  as  clearly 
on  the  stage  of  Loomiefa  as  the  movement  of  the  figures 
themselves.  And,  when  the  colloquy  had  ended,  and 
the  strangers  had  gained  all  the  information  they 
needed  for  their  farther  journey  through  space,  we  saw 
them  enter  their  faleenas  and  rise  above  the  eager, 
penetrating  gaze  of  their  new  friends.  Across  the  face 
of  the  heaven  we  followed  the  ethereal  fleet  as  it  faded 
again  into  insignificance.  Another  scene  showed  us 
their  landing  upon  another  planet  of  the  universe  they 
had  entered.  The  drama  thus  bore  us  with  delight 
from  system  to  system  throughout  the  cosmos,  and  re- 
vealed the  ease  with  which  stellar  voyaging  could  be 
accomplished,  once  the  initial  difficulties  had  been 
overcome. 

A  mediate  book,  dramatically  published  in  Loomiefa 
just  before,  prepared  the  way  for  this.  It  was  the 
book  of  Sidereal  Intercourse.  They  had  always  held 
that  the  other  universes  in  the  cosmos  were  as  much 
inhabited  by  life  as  theirs  was.  It  had  ever  seemed  to 
them  the  absurdest  of  arrogance  for  the  dwellers  on 
the  earth  to  assume  that  theirs  was  the  only  orb  out  of 
the  countless  myriads  on  the  face  of  night  that  had  life 
upon  it; -that  it  monopolised  the  vital  energy  of  in- 
finity, and  the  attention  of  its  divine  intelligence.  The 
wider  they  had  ranged  with  their  sidereal  sciences,  the 
more  they  smiled  at  the  primitive  thought  of  their  re- 
mote ancestors  that  they  were  the  cynosure  of  the  cos- 
mos. It  had  come  to  be  used  as  the  readiest  and  most 
striking  example  of  infatuation  and  conceit.  That  the 
poor  earthlings  were  as  microscopic  in  their  import- 
ance compared  with  the  vastitude  of  existence,  as  the 
bacterial   swarms  of  a  wayside  pool  compared  to  the 


476  Limanora 

denizens  of  the  great  ocean,  was  assumed  in  every 
movement  and  act  of  their  minds. 

And,  wherever  life  was,  there  was  the  chance  that 
highly  developed  intelligence  existed.  They  were  not 
so  sure  that  this  was  yet  the  case  on  the  farthest  of  our 
planets.  It  might  be  that  the  inner  and  smaller  bodies 
of  our  universe  had  passed  the  stage  in  which  they 
could  support  the  higher  life.  The  others,  the}r 
thought,  were  rapidly  evolving  a  life  of  their  own, 
most  of  it  still  in  a  low  grade;  when  the  earth  had 
passed  its  climax  and  begun  to  decay,  they  would 
probably,  one  after  the  other,  be  attaining  to  a  loftier 
type  of  life  and  intelligence.  Whilst  they  were  run- 
ning their  course  of  progress  the  earth  and  her  inner 
sister  planets  would  be  waiting  in  their  frozen  silence 
the  time  when  the  whole  of  their  universe  would  be 
exhausted.  Nearer  and  nearer  would  the  whole  solar 
system  be  approaching  some  other  system  that  had 
run  its  course;  and  the  encounter  of  the  two  would 
evolve  a  young  universe,  full  of  heat  and  energy 
enough  from  the  collision  to  make  a  new  cosmic 
career. 

They  had  little  hope  then  of  stirring  reply,  if  ever 
they  were  able  to  send  an  embassy  of  thought  to  any 
star  of  our  own  system.  All  their  hopes  of  astral  inter- 
communication were  pointed  to  other  stars  and  other 
universes;  and,  as  they  looked  up  into  the  eyes  of 
night,  they  seemed  to  feel  magnetic  answer  to  the  im- 
pulses of  their  souls,  not  from  Mars  or  Venus,  from 
Saturn  or  Jupiter,  but  from  the  stars  that  throbbed 
in  far  more  distant  depths.  They  had  ever  believed, 
of  course,  and  they  had  now  scientifically  shown,  that 
the  centres  of  light  flashing  in  the  nightly  sky  were 
not   the   true  sisters  of  earth   but   only  suns,    round 


Pioneering  477 

which  the  unseen  universes  circled.  They  tried  to  find 
the  dim  worlds  which  drew  their  heat  and  light  from 
these  poignant  watch-fires  of  heaven;  and  their  more 
recent  instruments  had  revealed  the  dark  outlines  of 
many  of  these  twilight  wanderers  which  hung  on  the 
radiance  of  the  visible  stars.  The  magnetism  that 
came  with  the  rays  from  some  of  those  far  distant 
luminous  points  had  shown  striking  aberration  early 
in  its  course;  and  nothing  could  explain  this  but  the 
existence  of  rayless  planets  revolving  round  these  lam- 
bent sources  of  light.  Step  by  step  had  they  homed 
these  aberrations,  till  they  knew  the  courses  of  the 
dusky  satellites  of  many  stars,  and  they  could  tell  the 
moment  when  a  circular  shadow  would  cross  the  face 
of  any  one  of  these  suns. 

The  eyes  of  the  astronomical  families  had  become  so 
accustomed  to  the  times  and  places  of  such  obscurations 
that  their  firlas  acted  with  them  and  searched  for  mag- 
netic impulses  from  the  dark  sisters  of  the  star  they 
were  watching;  till  at  last  they  could  tell  by  their 
electric  sense  the  place  of  many  dim  planets  in  the 
nearer  universes. 

It  was  on  this  that  the  book  of  Sidereal  Intercourse 
based  its  forecast  of  the  immediate  future.  Since  the 
definite  discovery  of  varied  types  of  life  in  the  spaces 
beyond  the  earth's  atmosphere, the  last  suspicion  of  mere 
fancy  had  vanished  from  the  belief  in  the  existence  of 
high  intelligence  on  the  universes  of  infinity.  And 
now  their  faces  were  set  towards  communication  with 
some  of  this  intelligence  on  distant  worlds.  The  new 
book  assumed  that  the  electric  sense,  or  something 
equivalent  for  the  perception  of  the  great  cosmic  force, 
had  been  developed  in  the  inhabitants  of  some  invisible 
worlds;  and  it  laid  down  as  an  axiom  that  there  were 


478  Limanora 

vast  stores  of  magnetic  material  in  these  orbs,  just  as 
there  were  in  the  earth  and  in  the  sun. 

What  they  must  first  do  was  to  sweep  the  range  of  a 
universe  with  an  electric  impulse  on  which  the  whole 
force  of  Rimla  should  be  concentrated,  and  to  keep 
their  delicate  indicators  all  set  in  the  same  direction. 
At  the  publication  of  the  book  in  Loomiefa  we  saw 
gigantic  engines  slowly  moving  their  long  arms  this 
way  and  that  athwart  one  of  the  most  brilliant  stars  of 
night,  and  scientists  eagerly  scanning  the  numerous 
magnetometers  that  surrounded  the  huge  electric  ma- 
chine. We  could  see  the  air  thrill  and  undulate  with 
the  mighty  impulse,  and  the  very  light  of  the  star 
seemed  to  flicker  and  wink  before  the  penetration  of 
the  intrusive  force.  At  last  a  flash  of  hope  came  over 
the  faces  of  the  watchers;  the  pendent  beam  of  one 
sarmolan  began  to  quiver.  It  was  a  message  from  the 
world  they  sought.  Again  they  turned  the  whole 
available  power  of  the  island — millions  of  millions  of 
horse-power — into  the  electric  engine,  the  arm  of  which 
they  had  at  once  brought  to  rest.  Fierce  lightnings 
again  played  through  the  atmosphere,  marking  the  line 
of  the  new  despatch.  And  again  the  luminous  tongue 
of  the  magnetometer  told  of  its  reception  by  intelli- 
gences like  ours.  Then  came  the  astronomic  families 
who  marked  the  exact  position  of  the  sensitive  spot  in 
the  sky.  And  thereafter  their  sentry  stood  with  sar- 
molan directed  thither,  ready  to  announce  the  slightest 
sign  of  astral  impulse  or  response. 

The  scene  changed,  and  we  saw  a  new  type  of  elec- 
tric engine  placed  in  position  on  the  stage.  On  its 
long  arm  was  a  singularly  crooked  cage  of  transparent 
irelium,  fiat  and  sharp  like  the  blade  of  a  sword  yet 
bent  into  a  right  angle  in  the  direction  of  the  edge. 


Pioneering  479 

Within  it  were  placed  recording  magnetometers.  We 
could  see  the  directors  fix  them  towards  their  respon- 
sive universe.  Then  Rimla  concentrated  its  tremen- 
dous power  upon  the  machine;  the  arm  swung  right 
and  left,  and  finally  with  a  jerk  shot  the  crooked  cage 
like  lightning  through  the  air.  We  followed  its  lum- 
inous track  far  into  the  sky,  till  it  seemed  nothing  but 
one  of  the  countless  stars  that  silvered  the  night.  Sud- 
denly, like  a  rocket,  it  bent  back  on  its  course,  and  as 
swiftly  retraced  its  flight.  I  thought  to  see  it  shattered 
into  dust  as  it  struck  the  earth,  but  there  was  a  deep 
pool  ready  to  break  its  force.  Its  sharp  edge  cut  the 
water  and  it  vanished,  but  slowly  rose  to  the  surface 
unhurt,  and  on  the  faces  of  the  observers  we  could  see 
how  successful  had  been  the  experiment  with  the  limo- 
tar,  or  new  boomerang  vehicle  of  electric  indications.  It 
had  shot  far  up  into  space  along  the  true  electric  impulse 
that  travelled  away  beyond  it  towards  the  sensitive  point 
of  sky  they  had  discovered.  Before  it  bent  back  from  its 
headlong  course,  the  response,  speeding  more  freel)r 
and  more  swiftly  through  the  untrammelled  ether,  im- 
printed itself  upon  the  face  of  the  sarmolan.  It  was 
this  answer,  more  decided  than  any  they  had  yet  re- 
ceived, that  filled  the  eyes  of  the  observers  with  joyous 
light. 

There  was  another  change  of  scene.  The  gigantic 
engines  had  disappeared  and  in  their  place  we  saw  the 
ether-courier  families  floating  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
atmosphere  with  strata  of  clouds  far  below  them.  On 
the  back  of  their  necks,  where  the  electric  sense  had 
its  special  seat,  they  bore  a  singular  apparatus,  not 
unlike  a  small  telescope.  On  their  chests  they  had 
strapped  a  small  engine  of  irelium,  a  miniature  of 
those  we  had  seen  in  former  scenes.     The  one  was  a 


480  Limanora 

magnifier  of  electric  indications,  and  the  other  was  an 
electricity  catapult.  The  couriers  could  not  only  draw 
upon  the  electric  resources  of  the  spaces  around  them, 
but  upon  those  of  the  centre  of  force.  And  we  could  see 
them  converse  with  distant  stars  by  means  of  these  ap- 
paratus. Through  unobstructed  space  they  could  send 
with  ease  their  electric  impulses  to  limitless  distances, 
free  from  the  atmospheric  retardation  which  before 
had  demanded  immense  power  to  overcome  its  inertia. 
And  with  their  new  electro- telescopes  they  could  mag- 
nify ten-thousandfold  any  electric  ray  for  their  firlas  to 
receive,  although  it  might  have  travelled  a  thousand 
times  the  distance  between  the  earth  and  the  sun. 
They  might  have  to  wait  days  for  their  answer;  but 
again  and  again  were  they  rewarded  with  it.  With 
the  dim  stars  circling  round  the  nearer  suns  they  were 
able  to  hold  comparatively  rapid  converse.  But  they 
were  going  farther  afield  through  the  cosmos,  and  they 
had  often  to  watch  and  wait  for  weeks  or  months  or 
3'ears  for  any  indication  of  response. 

The  book  awakened  little  enthusiasm  compared  with 
the  publication  of  some  of  those  that  I  had  witnessed. 
For,  though  the  authors  had  been  rapid  in  the  compo- 
sition of  it,  they  had  been  somewhat  forestalled  by  one 
of  the  ingenious  inventions  of  the  last  great  age  of  dis- 
covery. This  was  the  modification  of  the  lavolan  which 
brought  them  records  of  the  life  of  extra-aerial  space. 
Amongst  the  luminous  impressions  that  their  combina- 
tion of  lavolan  and  faleena  had  brought  down  out  of 
the  ether,  they  had  found  evidences  of  highly  organised 
systems  which  frequented  the  vacuum  outside  our  at- 
mosphere. They  were  satisfied  with  the  knowledge  of 
this  new-discovered  teeming  life,  and  they  believed  that 
before  many  ages  they   would    have   developed,   first 


Pioneering  481 

their  apparatus,  and  next  their  senses,  so  far  as  to  open 
intercourse  with  it.  And  if  they  could  come  to  con- 
verse with  nobler  intelligences  near  the  earth,  they  did 
not  need  to  go  so  far  afield  in  the  cosmos  as  the  new 
book  suggested.  Their  own  filammus  would  serve  to 
bring  them  into  close  sympathy  with  the  best  life  that 
was  to  be  found  in  space  until  they  should  know  the 
conditions  of  such  life  and  aim  at  fulfilling  them. 

It  was  one  of  the  subsidiary  studies  and  ideals  of  the 
book  that  drew  most  attention  and  produced  most  re- 
sult. It  pictured  an  apparatus  and  method  for  tapping 
the  thoughts  of  men  as  they  travelled  along  the  nerves, 
an  adaptation  of  their  huge  electric  engines  for  sidereal 
intercommunication.  For  some  ages  they  had  been 
able  to  send  emotions  and  impulses  through  the  air,  or 
rather  through  the  medium  that  interpenetrated  the 
air,  and  recently  they  had  developed  this  into  the  de- 
spatch of  thoughts  through  long  distances.  The  combi- 
nation of  great  magnetic  power  and  sensitive  sarmolans, 
this  book  showed,  would  draw  off  thought  at  any  point 
along  its  line  of  flight  whether  in  the  body  or  in  the 
air;  and  underneath  an  electric  magnifier  and  inter- 
preter the  indicator  would  reveal  the  meaning  of  the 
thoughts.  Thus  would  they  be  able  to  find  out  the  in- 
tentions of  men,  however  distant.  But  this  was  only 
a  minor  result  of  the  ideal.  They  would  be  able,  with 
the  aid  of  the  apparatus,  to  tap  the  torrents  of  thought 
speeding  through  the  ether,  and  so  drink  of  the  high- 
est intelligence  and  imagination  which  approached  the 
earth.  Much  of  it  would  be  too  intricate  and  abstruse 
for  them  to  follow  or  understand.  But  they  already 
knew  that  most  of  their  greatest  inspirations  had  come 
from  this  ocean  of  tremulous  energy,  bordering  the 
shores  of  our  world;  and  development  of  their  faculties 


482  Limanora 

and  of  their  sympathy  with  this  extra-terrestrial  thought 
would  gradually  lead  them  to  the  interpretation  of  its 
more  complex  and  deeper  elements.  All  their  civilisa- 
tion had  been  an  attempt  to  know  the  thoughts  that 
lie  in  the  structure  of  our  universe,  in  its  complicated 
energy  and  minute  life.  By  this  new  means  the}'  would 
feel  the  throb  of  the  very  heart  of  our  system,  per- 
chance of  the  very  heart  whose  beats  are  the  life  of  the 
cosmos;  at  least  they  would  get  to  know  the  intelli- 
gence that  flashes  through  space  around  our  world,  the 
wisdom  and  the  inspirations  passing  between  the  in- 
habitants of  the  ether  beyond  our  grosser  senses. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  minor  issue  and  ideal,  the 
publication  of  the  book  would  have  been  completely 
overshadowed  by  that  of  the  book  of  Immortality. 
This  took  as  basis  the  great  expansion  of  life  the}'  had 
been  able  to  produce  and  their  ideals  of  ethereal  nutri- 
tion and  amphibious  life,  and  pictured  the  posterity  of 
the  Limanorans  able  to  join  the  inhabitants  of  the 
ether  without  any  violent  transition  or  death.  We 
saw  a  Limauoran  on  the  stage  in  Loomiefa  passing 
through  the  new  transmutation  from  mortal  to  im- 
mortal. His  transient  elements  were  atom  by  atom 
sublimed  away  in  a  new  hall  of  medication,  where 
magnetic  energy  took  the  place  of  more  material  nutri- 
tion. His  tissues  became  diaphanous,  till  only  the 
light  and  the  magnetism  he  emitted  marked  the  place 
where  he  lay.  It  was  what  he  thought  and  felt  rather 
than  what  he  was  that  told  us  he  was  still  there.  His 
lower  and  more  stagnant  centres  of  energy  had  van- 
ished; and  gravitation  seemed  to  have  little  or  no  in- 
fluence upon  him.  Whithersoever  his  thought  willed, 
thither  he  floated,  rather  the  luminous  reflection  of  a 


Pioneering  48, 


man  than  the  man  himself.  To  our  grosser  senses  he 
seemed  as  impalpable  and  evanescent  as  a  perfume  or  a 
mist  on  the  morning  hills.  Yet  there  he  stood  or  moved 
an  inexpugnable  centre  of  the  highest  energy,  whither 
flowed  the  sympathetic  force  of  other  centres,  and 
whither  nothing  hostile  could  approach.  Storms 
passed  effectless  over  his  head;  the  deadliest  engines 
shot  their  darts  at  him  in  vain ;  poisonous  fumes,  lethal 
showers,  armies  of  pestilential  microbes,  swept  round 
him  and  through  him  innocuous.  All  the  evanescent 
centres  of  energy  that  had  laid  him  open  to  the  attacks 
of  these,  had  dissolved  and  left  him  fit  to  be  a  dweller 
in  the  infinite  ether.  There  might  be  other  noxious 
elements,  to  whose  assaults  he  was  yet  vulnerable;  but 
these  we  could  not  discover.  He  was  immortal  as  far 
as  terrestrial  enemies  were  concerned,  immortal  with- 
out the  sudden  collapse  and  dissolution  of  the  lower 
centres  which  we  call  death  upon  our  world.  By  the 
most  natural  of  processes  he  lost  the  substance  that 
awakened  our  grosser  senses  and  became  the  mere 
halo  of  what  he  had  been,  fit  only  to  make  himself  felt 
by  our  centres  of  thought  and  imagination.  With  our 
firlas  we  could  feel  stream  from  him  great  currents  of 
magnetic  influence,  unobstructed  by  any  of  those  ter- 
rene or  aerial  media  that  make  spiritual  intercourse  so 
difficult  upon  this  world. 

Such  an  ideal,  when  attained,  would  spread  what  is 
now  called  death  over  the  greater  part  of  our  terrestrial 
lifetime,  instead  of  massing  it  into  a  few  moments  of 
farewell.  It  would  be  difficult  to  fence  off  the  im- 
mortal from  the  mortal,  so  many  stages  would  there 
be  of  transmutation.  The  intercourse  between  the 
immortalising  and  the  immortal  would  then  be  con- 
tinuous   and    there    would    be    no    sudden    break    in 


484  Limanora 

existence,  no  great  gulf  fixed  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  material. 

With  the  same  corporeal  and  mental  faculties  which 
their  ancestry  had  had  in  primeval  ages,  and  the  bulk 
of  men  had  in  their  own  day,  they  would  have  counted 
immortality  as  the  gift  of  a  friend.  Even  with  their 
existing  development,  noble  though  it  was,  they  would 
never  think  of  longing  for  such  a  fate;  for  the  lower 
centres  of  energy,  forming  what  is  called  the  body,  still 
demanded  an  amount  of  attention  and  sustenance  that 
was  burdensome.  They  had  great  delight  in  their  life; 
they  energised  so  purely  and  continually  that  they  often 
forgot  the  corporeal  system  and  its  claims.  Yet  the 
time  came  in  all  men's  lives  when  they  felt  their  still- 
mixed  constitutions  advance  too  slowly  for  their  spirit- 
ual ambitions;  and  then  they  longed  for  change, 
perhaps  rest,  such  as  the  dissolution  we  call  death 
accomplished.  If,  however,  they  could  get  rid  of  the 
inferior  and  clogging  elements  of  their  systems  and 
float  free  of  terrene  forces  and  conditions  like  gravita- 
tion, then  might  immortality  be  an  object  of  desire. 

A  publication  that  delighted  them  even  more  than 
this  was  one  that  had  a  cognate  theme,  the  dimension 
of  time.  It  seemed  to  me  the  most  fanciful  of  all  the 
productions  I  had  witnessed  in  Loomiefa.  Yet  it  did 
not  seem  to  strike  the  L,imanorans  as  beyond  the 
bounds  of  possibility.  It  was  called  the  book  of  Time- 
focussing.  So  fantastic  and  Utopian  did  I  think  it  that 
I  paid  little  attention  when  it  was  dramatically  pub- 
lished on  the  stage.  Yet  I  remember  some  of  the  chief 
features  of  the  new  book. 

It  counselled  the  development  of  the  imagination  on 
its  prospicient  side  till  it  should  count  aeons  as  mo- 


Pioneering  485 

merits  and  take  easy  flight  through  eternities.  It  was 
the  real  time-faculty,  and  had  already  in  the  produc- 
tions of  Loomiefa  forerun  the  civilisation  of  the  race  by 
long  periods.  It  had  become  true  prophet  not  merely 
over  months  or  years,  but  over  centuries.  Trained  to 
use  the  data  of  the  past  and  the  present,  it  had  been 
able  to  forecast  the  evolution  of  the  future  with  a  cer- 
tainty that  made  its  art  almost  a  science.  What  was 
to  hinder  extending  its  range  of  vision  beyond  the  im- 
mediate horizon,  and  taking  in  at  a  glance  the  course 
of  the  future  as  it  did  the  page  of  history  ?  And  as  it 
reached  higher  and  higher  points  of  view,  it  could 
paint  eternity  as  it  now  pictured  the  past.  There  was 
no  limit  to  its  previsional  powers,  as  there  had  been 
none  to  its  penetration  into  the  prehistoric  and  prim- 
eval darkness.  Prescience  should  be  as  organised  and 
exact  as  any  science.  In  fact  all  their  sciences  had  be- 
come presciential,  those  that  were  merely  retrospective 
or  synchronous  having  gradually  fallen  out  of  notice. 
And  the  families  that  had  been  devoted  to  them  were 
one  by  one  absorbed  into  other  services.  No  study 
was  counted  of  much  value  that  had  not  one  eye  on 
the  future.  Their  whole  intellectual  system  was  thus 
becoming  futuritive,  and  all  the  faculties  looked  up  to 
and  centred  in  the  greatest  and  most  predictive  of  them 
all — the  imagination. 

They  had  already  been  able  in  the  valley  of  memories 
to  focus  the  past  into  the  view  of  a  few  moments  or 
days  or  months.  The  time  stretching  behind  us  into 
the  darkness  was  underneath  one  glance  of  the  intel- 
lectual eye.  Only  greater  certainty  in  their  imagina- 
tive methods  was  needed  for  the  eternity  that  stretches 
in  front  of  us  to  flash  before  the  soul  in  a  single  picture. 
Only  develop  the  prophet-faculty  as  rapidly  in  the  next 


486  Limanora 

few  generations  as  it  had  been  developed  in  the  past 
few,  and  we  might  move  at  will  from  age  to  age  of  the 
future,  as  we  now  move  from  age  to  age  of  the  past, 
living  at  any  moment  in  any  period  we  pleased,  or  in 
a  thousand  periods  at  once.  From  past  to  future 
would  be  as  easy  a  leap  as  from  hell  to  heaven  for  this 
great  time-and-space-focussing  faculty.  Eternity  would 
be  as  focal  to  imagination  as  infinity.  It  was  an  eye 
towards  which  radiated  all  time  and  all  space.  Post- 
historic  pictures  would  be  as  vivid  to  it  as  prehistoric. 
Even  now  interest  was  fast  leaking  from  mere  recorded 
history  before  the  romance  of  eternity  past  and  future. 
What  was  the  history  of  the  race  upon  earth,  compared 
with  the  periscope  of  the  cosmos?  Then  would  their 
posterity  be  able  to  stand  on  a  watch-tower  in  the 
heights  of  heaven,  and  view  the  whole  arena  of  exist- 
ence as  it  stretched  through  time  and  space.  There  is 
no  faculty  so  close  to  the  divine  as  imagination. 

I  felt  that  this  publication  was  like  all  their  work, 
singularly  self-regardless.  It  clearly  recognised  that 
the  realisation  of  its  proposed  ideal  would  mean  the 
doom  of  its  art.  Pioneering,  all  of  theirs  which  we  in 
the  West  would  call  literature,  would  be  superseded. 
Iyoomiefa  would  then  become  an  institution  of  the  past, 
less  and  less  interesting  as  but  a  rapidly  receding  item 
of  history.  Self-effacement  for  the  sake  of  progress  was 
the  dominant  note  of  L,imanoran  civilisation.  And  in 
this  book  it  seemed  to  me  to  rise  to  its  highest  pitch; 
for  it  held  before  the  race  a  goal,  which,  when  attained, 
would  render  literature  and  its  publication  unnecessary 
to  its  advance. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


ANOTHER  THREAT 


WHEN  the  island  was  absorbed  in  the  productions 
of  this  new  literary  or  pioneering  era,  its 
attention  was  suddenly  called  to  its  immediate  sur- 
roundings. Out  of  eternity  they  were  jerked  into  the 
passing  moment  to  defend  their  own  little  plot  of  earth. 
Mere  existence  was  endangered  if  they  did  not  at  once 
withdraw  their  powers  from  their  march  through  the 
future.  It  had  been  the  result  of  their  humane  and 
lenient  policy  towards  their  exiles  that  every  few  gen- 
erations rebellion  and  menace  rose  in  the  archipelago 
against  their  mysterious  isolation.  Fear  of  the  isle  of 
demons  awed  the  imaginations  of  the  other  islands 
for  a  century  or  two,  and  then  foolhardy  prosperity,  or 
conquest,  demanded  a  new  lesson. 

Half  a  century  had  not  passed  since  the  romance  of 
Choktroo's  rise  and  fall;  and  unaided  and  unstimulated, 
the  other  inhabitants  of  the  archipelago  would  have 
grovelled  in  helpless  fear  and  hate  of  the  central  isle. 
The  discipline  applied  in  the  repulsion  of  Choktroo's 
fleet  would  have  sufficed  for  several  centuries,  but  for 
a  new  power  which  had  insinuated  itself  within  the 
circle  of  mist. 

487 


488  Limanora 

One  of  the  days  when  the  book  of  Emigration  was 
holding  the  stage  of  Loomiefa,  the  spectators  were 
startled  by  realistic  transference  of  their  drama  to  the 
sky  above  them.  Just  as  the  opalescent  faleenas  were 
about  to  land  on  the  new  star,  every  eye  was  suddenly 
drawn  away  from  the  stage  to  the  blue  spreading  above 
the  valley.  Across  it  was  passing  a  strange  airship  of 
huge  proportions  and  ungainly  structure.  I  recognised 
it  as  a  development  of  the  balloon,  with  which  I  had 
been  familiar  in  my  European  experience.  There  was 
the  immense  inflated  globe,  or  rather  pear,  with  the  car 
hung  underneath;  but  there  was  something  new  in  the 
motions  of  this  balloon.  It  seemed  to  be  dirigible,  for 
it  tacked  this  way  and  that  across  the  direction  of  the 
wind.  And  still  more  strange,  the  car  was  filled  with 
implements  of  war;  I  could  see  their  great  muzzles 
pointed  over  the  sides. 

The  Limanorans  were  startled  by  this  anticipation 
of  their  science,  but  only  for  a  moment;  and  as  soon 
as  the  apparition  sailed  out  of  sight,  they  bent  their 
senses  as  eagerly  on  the  spectacle  before  them.  They 
knew  that  their  sentries  were  at  their  watch-posts  on 
Ivilaroma,  and  nothing  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the 
civilisation  could  occur  in  air  or  sea  or  upon  earth  with- 
out stirring  their  attention,  and  so  placing  the  whole 
island  on  the  alert.  They  waited  till  the  publication 
of  the  book  was  finished  and  then  streamed  off  to  their 
various  businesses  and  pursuits.  As  we  flew  across  the 
upper  slopes  of  the  mountain  we  found  out  that  the 
aerial  stranger  had  settled  upon  one  of  the  lonelier 
heights  of  the  island  of  Broolyi.  No  action  was  taken 
by  the  L,imanorans  against  the  singular  invader  of  the 
archipelago,  except  to  set  a  special  watchman  who 
should  observe  his  movements  through  the  idrovamo- 


Another  Threat  489 

lan,  and  should  report  to  the  elders  anything  out  of  the 
common  that  might  occur. 

The  stranger  had  evidently  been  disabled  away  to 
the  east  of  the  circle  of  fog;  his  steering-gear  had 
ceased  to  act,  and  before  a  tornado  he  was  hurried  away 
from  the  great  continent  over  which  he  had  hovered. 
The  impetus  bore  him  helpless  above  and  across  the 
ring  of  mist,  and  within  its  calmer  sphere  the  steering- 
gear  was  again  adjusted.  It  was  then  that  the  watchers 
on  Lilaroma  saw  his  purpose  to  make  for  their  island, 
and  they  sent  through  the  lilaran  a  blast  which  would 
carry  him  away  from  their  shores,  not  rude  enough  to 
harm  him,  yet  sufficiently  strong  to  defeat  his  inten- 
tion. Feeling  himself  borne  again  farther  away  from 
his  home  he  tacked  for  the  nearest  peak  that  he  thought 
he  could  reach.  This  was  evidently  Klimarol.  But 
the  blast  of  the  lilaran  was  too  much  for  him;  and  to 
save  himself  from  drifting  still  farther  west  he  grappled 
one  of  the  heights  of  Broolyi  as  he  passed  over  it,  and 
settled  there. 

It  became  one  of  the  amusements  of  the  younger 
Limanorans  to  observe  the  behaviour  and  the  fate  of 
the  newcomer  in  the  isle  of  peace.  The  crew  of  the 
airship  was  numerous;  they  were  taken  prisoners  not 
long  after  they  had  descended  from  their  car,  and  their 
captain  was  hurried  off  to  the  court  of  the  new  ruler. 
Before  long  the  balloon  was  brought  to  the  capital  and 
carefully  guarded;  and,  anchored  firmly  to  the  earth, 
it  made  ascents  with  the  royal  engineers  under  the 
direction  of  the  balloonist.  His  every  movement  was 
watched  lest'  he  should  release  the  captive  by  cutting 
the  rope  that  bound  it,  and  sail  off  with  the  officers  of 
his  Broolyian  majesty.  But  as  the  months  and  years 
passed  on,  the  newcomer  with  his  strange  new  ship 


49°  Limanora 

came  to  be  trusted  by  the  king  and  his  advisers.  He 
saw  an  arena  for  his  ambitions  and  talents,  and  bent 
his  whole  energies  to  his  new  purpose. 

We  could  see  him  from  day  to  day  and  week  to  week 
add  to  the  aerial  fleet,  which  he  at  once  began  to  build 
in  imitation  of  the  balloon  he  had  brought  with  him. 
His  original  subordinates  and  companions  were  at  first 
his  only  assistants,  but  the  Broolyian  engineers  and 
mechanicians  afterwards  joined  in  the  work  in  great 
numbers,  and  became  as  deft  at  it  as  the  strangers. 
Every  new  balloon  that  was  made  was  tested  in  the  air. 
At  first  there  were  accidents,  which  for  a  time  preju- 
diced the  court  and  the  people  against  the  aerial  mon- 
sters. But  by  carefully  selecting  his  men  from  the 
army  the  director  was  able  at  last  to  furnish  every  air- 
ship that  he  made  with  a  complete  and  efficient  crew, 
able  under  the  leadership  of  one  of  his  companions  to 
manipulate  the  vehicle  and  every  implement  on  board 
of  it.  It  even  became  the  favourite  pastime  of  the 
court  to  make  voyages  across  the  island  in  these  swift 
frigates  of  the  sky. 

Ultimately  the  king  so  thoroughly  trusted  the  master 
of  this  new  style  of  transportation  that  he  abandoned 
himself  to  his  guidance  and  allowed  him  free  use  of  all 
the  resources  of  the  island.  He  came  to  see  the  mar- 
vellous possibilities  that  lay  in  warfare  carried  on  by 
such  a  navy.  Though  theBroolyianshad,  after  Chok- 
troo's  deportation,  lost  one  by  one  all  the  conquests 
that  that  audacious  warrior  had  made,  and  had  at  last 
been  confined  again  to  the  limits  of  their  island,  they 
never  gave  up  their  ambitious  dreams.  And  the  mon- 
arch who  could  fulfil  them  would  be  certain  to  fix  his 
empire  in  their  hearts.  The  new  king  looked  round  for 
some  means  to  gratify  this  passion  for  conquest.     But 


Another  Threat  49 1 

their  old  methods  were  now  comparatively  useless ;  for 
the  other  large  islands,  warned  by  their  past  experi- 
ence, built  fleets  as  large  and  formidable  as  the  Brool- 
yian,  and  the  smaller  groups  confederated  for  the  pur- 
poses of  defence.  It  was  vain  then  to  think  of  re-mas- 
tering the  archipelago  in  any  attempt  by  sea. 

With  extreme  delight  then  did  the  monarch  watch  a 
demonstration  of  the  warlike  possibilities  of  the  new 
air  craft.  The  director  had  some  old  hulks  moored  out 
at  sea  in  sight  of  the  king  and  his  court.  Then  he  en- 
tered one  of  his  new  balloons,  well  provided  with  guns 
and  explosives  and  well-manned,  and  bade  the  crew  let 
go.  They  sailed  straight  out  till  they  rose  high  over 
the  remains  of  the  antiquated  navy.  As  they  ap- 
proached their  pre}7,  several  guns  belched  out  their 
fires  from  the  car,  and  their  shot  struck  and  sank  three 
of  the  ancient  ships.  But  two  tough  old  hulls  resisted 
all  their  attempts.  So  the  balloon  rose  straight  over 
them,  but  much  higher  in  the  air.  Out  of  the  car  was 
seen  to  fall  two  packages,  which  made  for  the  decks  of 
the  old  tempest  resisters.  In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
before  we  could  realise  that  the  packets  had  reached 
their  destinations,  there  was  a  thunderous  roar,  and 
the  air  was  filled  with  jets  of  water  and  with  the  flying 
fragments  of  the  shattered  hulks.  When  the  commo- 
tion settled,  nothing  but  floating  planks  and  spars  and 
shreds  of  the  vanished  ships  was  to  be  seen  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  water.  And  away  out  of  reach  of  the  fierce 
convulsion  rode  the  airship  majestic  and  unharmed  in 
the  blue. 

The  monarch  need  no  further  demonstration.  He 
gave  up  to  the  master  of  the  new  power  the  use  of  his 
whole  army  and  navy.  Before  many  months  were  over 
a  vast  aerial  fleet  was  equipped  and  manned  ready  for 


492  Limanora 

the  first  emergency,  and  this  emergency  arose  at  once. 
The  sullen  jealousy  which  ever  smoulders  and  rankles 
between  two  powerful  and  neighbouring  empires  took 
substance  and  outward  shape  between  Aleofane  and 
Broolyi.  The  old  enemy  knew  nothing  of  the  new  in- 
struments of  war  which  had  been  forged,  and  prepared 
with  cheer  and  good  hope  for  the  struggle.  Her  fleet 
was  in  excellent  order,  well  equipped  and  manned,  but 
within  a  few  weeks  it  had  completely  vanished  before 
the  wrecking  terror  of  the  air.  Continuous  torrents  of 
lead  and  iron  streamed  from  above  onto  their  decks, 
making  those  of  their  gunners  that  survived  helpless 
and  inert.  And  when  their  captains  invented  methods 
of  pointing  their  guns  at  the  aerial  ships  and  of  floating 
fire-kites  against  them  to  set  them  on  fire,  then  the 
most  tremendous  engines  of  the  navy  in  the  air  were 
brought  into  train;  and  with  appalling  explosions  the 
Aleofanian  ships  and  their  crews  vanished  in  atoms. 

No  such  destruction  of  a  nation's  war  material  had 
ever  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  archipelago.  The 
Aleofanian  marine  force  was  swept  from  the  face  of  the 
sea.  One  or  two  other  islands  were  bold  enough  to 
attempt  the  struggle  with  the  new  power,  but  with  the 
same  disastrous  results  to  themselves.  Over  the  whole 
archipelago  except  its  central  island  the  air-fleet  passed, 
inspiring  terror  and  reducing  the  peoples  to  servitude. 
It  was  the  same  all-conquering  story  as  was  told  under 
Choktroo's  leadership. 

And  now  the  Broolyian  army  and  people  were  will- 
ing to  worship  the  maker  and  manipulator  of  these 
balloons  as  a  god.  He  had  plenty  of  ambition;  but  he 
was  by  nature  and  acquirement  only  a  mechanician  and 
not  a  born  leader  of  men.  He  had  none  of  the  self- 
confidence  made  monstrous  by  success,  or  of  the  un- 


Another  Threat  493 

scrupulousness,  that  forges  the  masterful  will.  He  did 
love  power,  but  he  hesitated  before  those  audacious 
measures  which  give  a  conqueror  the  highest  vantage- 
ground.  He  yearned  to  rule  widely.  But  he  had  not 
the  self-mastery  and  the  leavening  imagination  which 
secure  command  over  the  minds  of  human  aggrega- 
tions. He  was  but  an  average  nature  with  complete 
mastery  over  the  newest  and  most  masterful  in- 
vention. 

The  Broolyian  monarch  saw  the  peril  of  his  too  great 
success,  and  set  the  stranger  and  his  balloons  aside  in 
time  to  let  the  popular  enthusiasm  cool.  Alone  with 
his  fleet  and  his  army  the  king  completed  the  round  of 
conquests.  He  knew  that  when  the  power  of  Aleofane 
and  one  or  two  other  chief  islands  was  broken,  there 
was  nothing  to  fear  from  the  others,  and  his  task, 
though  brilliant,  was  easy.  He  took  care  that  there 
were  several  great  and  sanguinary  battles  that  put 
heart  and  pride  into  his  soldiers  and  sailors.  Thus  by 
the  time  the  war  was  finished,  the  newcomer  and  his 
appalling  fleet  were  almost  forgotten. 

But  the  monarch  himself  did  not  forget  them.  He 
knew  that  the  climax  of  this  new  era  of  national  con- 
quest and  pride  was  certain  to  come  soon.  Never  had 
the  Broolyians  been  continuously  successful  in  war 
without  losing  their  traditional  fear  of  the  isle  of  devils, 
and  demanding  its  subjugation.  He  set  his  house  in 
order  against  the  day  of  vainglory.  He  would  develop 
his  new  method  of  warfare.  He  made  the  stranger 
again  his  commander-in-chief,  urging  him  on  towards 
the  increase  of  the  aerial  fleet  and  of  its  terrorising 
weapons.  Then,  fearing  from  his  knowledge  of  the 
past  that  there  was  little  chance  of  success,  he  gave 
him  complete  command  of  the  expedition,  so  that  all 


494  Limanora 

the  blame  of  failure  should  be  on  the  shoulders  of  an- 
other. In  order  to  complete  the  contrast,  he  kept  re- 
bellion smouldering  in  one  or  two  of  the  adjacent 
islands,  and  took  care  that  it  broke  out  simultaneously 
with  the  attack  upon  the  isle  of  devils. 

Ignorant  of  the  conditions  he  had  to  meet,  and  puffed 
up  by  his  past  successes,  the  stranger  thought  that  all 
he  had  to  do  was  to  add  to  the  number  of  his  fleet  and 
the  deadliness  of  his  weapons.  We  saw  him  set  out 
with  banners  flying  amid  the  applause  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  people,  whilst  the  wily  king  led  off  his  own 
forces,  cmietly  to  embark  from  an  opposite  shore  of 
the  country  against  the  rebels  of  neighbouring  coasts. 
Success  seemed  to  follow  the  aerial  navy,  for  favouring 
winds  bore  them  swiftly  and  majestically  over  the  hori- 
zon out  of  the  range  of  Broolyian  vision.  For  myself, 
as  I  sat  at  an  idrovamolan,  I  feared  the  strange  new 
torrential  guns  and  the  showers  of  deadly  explosives 
that  would  rain  down  from  these  aerial  ships,  and  my 
heart  sank  as  I  saw  them  sail  like  great  vultures  nearer 
and  nearer  to  their  prey. 

But  my  compatriots  were  tranquil  and  free  from  all 
anxiety.  Everything  was  really  in  readiness  and  they 
were  only  awaiting  the  exact  moment  for  action.  It 
came,  and  the  huge  balloons  fell  suddenly  away  before 
the  blast  from  the  lilaran,  like  a  flock  of  storm-beaten 
birds.  I  could  see  them  struggling,  many  of  them 
half  disabled,  to  stand  up  to  the  wind.  But  it  was 
vain;  they  whirled  like  snowflakes  before  an  arctic 
tempest.  Their  helms  became  entangled  in  their 
snapped  cordage,  and  I  could  see  their  guns  roll  and 
pitch  with  fatal  effect  upon  the  crews,  till  from  many 
the  suicidal  weapons  were  tumbled  overboard  into  the 
sea  below. 


Another  Threat  495 

Yet  the  expedition  b}r  no  means  acknowledged  itself 
defeated.  Guided  by  some  experienced  Broolyian  ad- 
viser the  admiral  of  the  fleet  changed  its  formation. 
Evidently  from  knowledge  that  the  blast  from  Lilaroma 
could  play  upon  only  one  point  at  once,  he  divided  his 
air-navy  into  three  squadrons,  and  making  the  central 
face  the  blast,  he  sent  the  other  two  in  different  direc- 
tions round  the  island.  He  thought  that  these  two 
would  be  able  to  bring  their  explosives  and  guns  to 
bear  upon  the  lilaran  by  this  flank  movement.  It  was 
as  unsuccessful  as  his  other  efforts.  Both  sections 
came  almost  within  firing  distance  of  the  shore,  when 
suddenly  their  gaseous  spheres  were  seen  to  collapse. 
A  slight  and  silent  flash  was  all  that  told  whence  the 
disaster  had  come.  Electric  rockets  had  issued  from 
magnetic  ejectors  of  great  power  and  almost  invisibly 
punctured  the  spherical  supporter  of  each  airship. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  whole  of  the  three  squadrons 
would  soon  be  in  the  sea,  and  with  the  weight  of  their 
war  material  they  were  certain  to  sink  to  the  bottom 
and  carry  all  their  crews  with  them.  But  the  invaders 
promptly  threw  overboard  their  weighty  cargoes,  and 
with  their  usual  humanity  the  Limanorans  now  did 
their  best  to  save  their  enemies.  The  punctures  in  the 
balloons  were  so  minute  that  it  would  take  some  time 
to  exhaust  them.  So  the  lilaran  sent  its  blast  under- 
neath them  and  buoyed  them  up  like  thistledown,  at 
the  same  time  blowing  the  three  sections  of  the  navy 
off  in  different  directions.  It  was  amusing  to  watch 
the  alternate  rise  and  fall  of  the  various  airships  as  it 
turned  its  blast  from  one  squadron  to  another,  like  a 
game  of  battledoor  and  shuttlecock  played  by  giant  jug- 
glers. The  warriors  in  the  cars  kept  crouching  in 
panic  and  holding  onto  the  cordage,  as  the)r  rose  or  fell 


496  Limanora 

in  the  air  upon  the  billows  of  wind.  Their  cars  danced 
and  leaped  and  jerked  like  corks  in  an  eddy  where 
currents  meet,  and  they  were  too  panic-stricken  or  too 
paralysed  with  terror  to  see  that  with  all  the  tumult  of 
their  movements  they  were  gradually  approaching  solid 
earth.  We  saw  each  squadron  land  on  the  shores  of 
a  separate  island;  and  after  their  terrible  voyage  the 
crews  threw  themselves  upon  the  earth  and  seemed  to 
clutch  it,  in  fear  lest  they  should  be  torn  again  from 
its  sweet  anchorage  into  the  warring  whirlpools  of  the 
upper  air. 

After  a  few  days  they  collected  their  wits  and  the 
shattered  fragments  of  their  air-fleet,  and,  hiring  boats 
from  the  islanders,  sailed  homewards.  As  they  entered 
the  main  harbour  of  Broolyi  crestfallen  and  dispirited, 
the  army  and  fleet  of  the  king  were  returning  from 
their  victories  with  triumphal  music  and  with  banners 
flying.  The  contrast  was  striking,  and  set  the  mon- 
arch more  firmly  on  his  throne  for  another  generation. 

Yet  matters  could  not  remain  where  they  were.  The 
defeat  of  the  new  methods  of  warfare  stirred  hope  in 
the  breasts  of  the  conquered  peoples;  and  muffled 
sounds  of  rebellion  came  from  many  of  the  islands. 
The  king  knew  that  he  must  make  some  other  move, 
and  held  long  councils  with  the  defeated  balloonist. 

The  result  of  the  conferences  soon  became  manifest. 
The  stranger  had  seen  that  his  aerial  fleet  was  useless 
against  tempests  and  electric  missiles,  such  as  the  isle 
of  demons  had  command  of,  and  he  willingly  handed 
it  over  to  his  superior  to  use  against  the  threatened  re- 
volts. With  the  blind  obstinacy  of  the  average  mind 
placed  in  a  position  greater  than  its  powers,  he  ran 
counter  to  the  traditions  of  the  archipelago,  and  uttered 
loud  resolves  that  he  was  not  to  be  beaten;  he  would 


Another  Threat  497 

show  them  how  fertile  he  was  in  resources;  he  had  no 
fear  of  their  bag  of  winds. 

The  king  again  gave  him  free  scope  with  all  the  ma- 
terial and  forces  of  the  country,  and  the  ingenious 
mechanician  forged  huge  guns  that  would  throw  their 
projectiles  enormous  distances,  and  built  great  ships  to 
hold  them.  As  he  launched  one  vessel  after  another, 
he  practised  his  crews  on  board  of  it,  and  taught  them 
how  to  handle  the  marvellous  artillery.  The  people 
stood  in  awe,  as  they  heard  the  thunder  of  their  fire 
dozens  of  leagues  away,  and  saw  their  missiles  fall  in 
the  sea  miles  and  miles  from  the  ship  whence  they  had 
issued;  and  they  shook  their  heads  wisely  and  said  to 
each  other:  "  Now,  we  shall  see  at  last  an  end  to  this 
isle  of  demons." 

When  the  great  armada  was  all  ready  after  long  }*ears 
of  work,  and  the  ships  lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbour, 
their  magazines  filled,  their  guns  in  train,  and  every- 
thing prepared  for  the  final  expedition,  the  people  were 
so  overjoyed  at  the  sight  that  they  organised  a  festival 
to  the  sailors  of  the  wonderful  fleet.  They  had  such 
confidence  in  the  destructive  powers  of  these  ships  and 
their  guns  that  they  resolved  to  pre-celebrate  with 
magnificent  pageantry  and  feast  the  triumph  they  were 
so  assured  of.  And  as  the  monarch  had  already  de- 
feated the  incipient  rebellion  by  his  aerial  fleet,  and 
the  mutterings  of  the  subjugated  were  stifled  or  un- 
heard, there  could  be  no  danger  in  inviting  all  the  sailors 
on  shore  to  take  part  in  the  festivities.  So  the  great 
fleet  lay  peacefully  at  anchor  unmanned,  whilst  their 
crews  were  being  lauded  to  the  skies  for  their  intre- 
pidity and  the  certainty  of  their  success. 

The  night  was  moonless  and  deep  darkness  was 
flecked   only  by  the   occasional    blaze   of  sky-daring 


498  Limanora 

illumination.  Everything  had  gone  off  with  brilliancy, 
and  the  banquet  to  the  sailors  was  nearing  its  climax 
and  close.  Suddenly  the  hubbub  of  jubilance  was 
hushed;  there  was  a  series  of  appalling  detonations, 
shaking  the  banqueting  edifice  to  its  foundations; 
many  thought  that  the  world  had  come  to  an  end  so 
terrifying  and  ear-deafening  was  the  continuous  roar. 
The  people  in  the  streets  at  first  fell  on  the  earth  and 
prayed  to  their  gods.  But  they  soon  saw  what  had 
occurred.  There  out  on  the  harbour  the  pyrotechnic 
display  overshadowed  anything  they  had  ever  seen  or 
even  thought  of.  The  great  ships  were  all  of  them  in 
flames;  the  magazine  of  each  had  exploded,  and  sent 
decks  and  fittings  and  armaments  sputtering  in  frag- 
ments against  the  black  of  the  sky.  The  brilliancy  of 
the  spectacle  overcame  the  natural  alarm  and  regret. 
Such  titanic  catherine-wheels  they  had  never  seen, 
such  rending  of  the  heavens,  such  flame-lit  jets  of  water 
rising  in  columns  above  the  doomed  ships.  But  the 
spectacle  was  brief.  Ship  after  ship  rose  high  above 
the  scene  of  its  devastation,  its  banners  of  fire  all  flying 
against  the  darkness,  and  then  plunged  into  the  ex- 
tinction and  gloom  of  the  depths.  The  breach  in  the 
side  close  to  the  magazine  sucked  in  the  waters  most 
swiftly,  and  sent  the  bow-end  of  each  first  to  the  watery 
assuagement  of  her  fires.  In  an  hour  after  the  first 
deafening  paroxysm  all  was  still  and  dark  again  on  the 
face  of  the  waters,  but  for  a  flaming  fragment  here 
and  there,  hissing  and  sputtering  against  the  night. 

Then  came  terror  again.  The  Broolyians,  jubilant 
over  the  invincibility  of  their  marvellous  fleet,  knew 
not  whence  the  disaster  had  come  or  who  had  been  the 
enemy.  And  they  now  crouched  in  fear,  or  ran  for 
shelter,  lest  the  invisible  foe  should  take  advantage 


Another  Threat  499 

of  their  palsy  and  reap  his  harvest  of  blood.  But  no 
enemy  came.  No  carnage  followed  the  strange  catas- 
trophe. The  morning  dawned,  and  the  waters  of  the 
bay  shone  as  peacefully  in  the  level  rays  of  the  sun  as 
if  no  fleet  had  ever  been  there,  as  if  no  conflagration 
had  occurred.  Not  a  boat  or  sign  of  an  enemy  was  to 
be  seen.  Out  crept  the  soldiers  and  sailors  from  their 
shelters,  the  people  in  their  rear,  and  soon  the  harbour 
was  alive  with  craft,  seeking  relics  and  explanation  of 
the  disaster. 

But  no  explanation  could  be  found  in  all  the  babel  of 
theories  that  chattered  and  echoed  over  the  water.  A 
council  of  the  royal  advisers  was  called;  they  consulted 
and  questioned  every  admiral  and  general;  but  all  in 
vain.  The  stranger,  who  had  brought  the  fleet  and  its 
equipment  into  existence,  failed  to  account  for  the  oc- 
currence. He  refuted  all  charges  of  negligence,  and 
appealed  to  the  desire  of  the  people  and  the  command 
of  the  king  as  his  warrant  for  withdrawing  the  crews 
from  the  ships  for  the  night.  Treachery  there  must 
have  been;  there  were  a  thousand  conjectures,  but  no 
sure  knowledge  as  to  whence  it  came.  With  the  irra- 
tionality and  ingratitude  which  mark  all  panic  in  na- 
tions or  other  aggregations  of  men  when  unexplained 
disaster  has  overtaken  them,  they  broke  out  in  fury 
against  the  very  hero  of  the  night's  festivities.  They 
had  to  find  a  scapegoat  and  his  figure  was  foremost  in 
every  man's  mind;  the  destructive  magnetism  of  the 
crowd  gathered  round  the  name  that  was  on  every  lip, 
and  the  cry  arose  that  he  was  the  traitor.  The  mob 
howled  outside  the  council-room  for  his  blood.  He 
had  to  be  bundled  off  by  a  secret  passage  to  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city  and  thence  into  the  mountains,  and  to 
appease  their  frantic  passions  the  king  had  to  proclaim 


500  Limanora 

his  exile,  and  to  promise  that  no  such  engines  of  war 
should  again  be  forged  in  the  royal  armories.  Fear 
of  the  isle  of  demons  again  crept  over  the  superstitious 
hearts  of  the  people.  As  they  brooded  over  the  mys- 
tery, they  felt  that  somehow  or  other  it  was  connected 
with  that  inexpugnable  centre  which  had  defied  all 
their  efforts  at  its  invasion. 

And  this  was  right.  For  the  Limanorans  had  watched 
the  long  preparation  for  the  assault,  and  made  calmly 
ready  to  defeat  it.  They  knew  that,  if  they  ever  al- 
lowed the  fleet  to  sail,  they  could  not  well  beat  it  off 
without  loss  of  life  amongst  its  crews.  It  could  lie  in 
the  shelter  of  an  island  some  miles  distant  from  their 
shores  and  rain  great  projectiles  upon  them.  The  re- 
pulse must  be  accomplished  long  before  this  had  been 
reached.  They  therefore  waited  till  the  ammunition 
was  on  board  each  ship.  Then,  in  order  to  avoid  the 
destruction  of  life,  they  sent  into  the  air  of  Broolyi  the 
exhilarative  magnetism  required,  and  into  the  minds 
of  the  inhabitants  the  suggestion  that  the  whole  fleet 
should  be  feted.  When  the  ships  had  been  deserted 
and  not  a  human  being  was  within  reach  of  them,  they 
launched  through  the  air  in  its  direction  a  series  of 
electric  shocks,  which,  as  soon  as  they  came  in  contact 
with  the  metals  of  the  magazine,  ignited  the  ammuni- 
tion. Most  of  the  ships  were  set  on  fire  in  this  way, 
the  rest  by  the  falling  fragments  and  sparks  from  their 
exploding  sisters. 

Thus  was  the  new  threat  to  L,imanoran  civilisation 
frustrated  without  loss  of  life  or  breach  of  the  mystery 
that  sealed  the  central  isle.  But  the  waste  of  time  and 
progress  upon  such  threats  by  the  withdrawal  of  so 
many  Limanorans  from  their  ordinary  pursuits  was  an 
evil  not  to  be  tolerated.     Something:  must  be  done  to 


Another  Threat  5QI 

prevent  the  recurrence  of  these  expeditions.  It  was 
generally  from  Broolyi  they  came,  the  result  of  war- 
like ambition.  It  would  be  a  service  to  the  whole 
archipelago  to  reduce  this  military  people  to  insignifi- 
cance and  silence.  There  was  no  security  in  their 
subjugation  by  the  people  of  another  island,  for  the 
war-fanaticism  would  surge  up  again  in  a  later  genera- 
tion. The  conversion  of  them  to  a  religion  of  peace 
would  mean  no  change  in  the  blood;  it  would  only 
transform  the  method  and  cue  of  attack. 

What  was  needed  was  the  elimination  of  the  ambitious 
and  military  natures  from  the  Broolyians.  For  only 
the  aristocracy  and  the  descendants  of  the  original  con- 
quering exiles  had  set  their  hearts  on  military  pursuits; 
the  conquered  and  many  of  the  families  that  came  to 
the  island  at  later  dates  than  the  great  purgation,  were 
not  unwilling  to  keep  to  their  own  bounds,  and  pre- 
ferred possession  to  dispossession.  There  was  no  need 
of  extermination  of  the  people,  but  only  decimation. 
Nor  would  the  Limanorans  endure  any  shedding  of 
blood  in  the  process.  It  must  be  gradual,  peaceful, 
free  from  torture  and  bloodshed,  and  almost  unobserv- 
able. 

The  physiological  and  physicist  families  worked  out 
a  scheme  that  would  fulfil  all  these  conditions,  and  yet 
finally  eject  the  disturbers  of  peace  from  the  archipelago 
within  a  generation.  The  scare  they  had  just  suffered 
and  the  exile  of  the  balloonist  ensured  to  Limanora 
freedom  from  their  attacks  for  some  years.  But  they 
aimed  at  permanent  immunity  and  this  could  be  secured 
by  nothing  less  than  the  sterilisation  of  the  warlike 
element  in  Broolyi. 

The  end  was  accomplished  in  the  next  aggression 
upon    a   neighbouring   island.      The   expedition   was 


502  Limanora 

formidable,  and  included  all  the  bellicose  males  of  the 
offending  people.  After  landing,  it  lay  encamped  in 
the  open  air;  then  a  band  of  Limanorans  set  out  on 
wings  by  night,  armed  with  a  new  surgical  instrument, 
called  the  idlumian,  which  could  give  an  electric  shock 
to  any  part  of  the  human  system  and  paratyse  it  either 
for  a  time  or  permanently,  according  to  the  power 
put  into  it.  They  approached  the  whole  army  as  it 
lay  asleep,  and  by  the  whiff  of  a  soporific  which  they 
diffused  through  the  air,  they  steeped  the  systems  of 
the  sentinels  in  lethargy  and  by  the  same  means  ensured 
the  depth  and  continuance  of  the  slumbers  of  the  em- 
battled host.  Before  a  single  soldier  had  awakened 
from  his  deep  sleep,  the  whole  Broolyian  army  was  de- 
fertilised  without  being  in  the  least  conscious  of  any 
loss  of  vitality  or  manhood  or  enjoyment  of  life.  When 
the  sentries  awoke  and  the  troops  began  to  move  about 
in  preparation  for  their  struggle,  the  medical  embass)^ 
had  winged  its  way  back  to  Limanora.  Not  till  twenty 
or  thirty  years  after  did  it  strike  the  Broolyiaus  that 
the  fountain  of  their  military  power  was  dried  up,  and 
soon  they  began  to  attribute  the  strange  infecuudity 
of  their  aristocratic  and  warlike  families  to  the  witch- 
craft of  the  isle  of  demons,  a  belief  that  finally  sealed 
that  centre  of  the  archipelago  as  with  walls  of  adamant 
against  aggression  on  the  part  of  their  neighbours. 

My  Western  instincts,  in  spite  of  all  my  training, 
would  reappear  at  intervals  —  which  happily  became 
longer  and  longer — and  for  a  time  I  could  not  repress 
my  instinctive  disapproval  of  the  use  of  this  idlumian 
or  electro  steriliser.  Yet  my  reason  told  me  that  it  w^as 
the  only  effective  method  of  permanentl3r  stopping  the 
horrors  of  war  in  the  archipelago.  Heredity  and  cir- 
cumstances would  have  circumvented  any  other  blood- 


Another  Threat  503 

less  attempt  at  relief  from  the  Broolyian  nightmare.  A 
few  discussions  with  my  proparents  made  this  rational 
view  of  the  matter  dominant  over  the  conservative  in- 
stinct in  me,  and  before  many  years  my  instinct  was 
quite  the  other  way;  it  became  the  ally  of  the  reason; 
and  I  had  no  need  to  argue  with  myself  on  the  point 
or  confirm  my  faith  by  arguing  with  others  who  knew 
better  than  I. 

There  was  another  Western  instinct  of  mine  which 
gave  me  frequent  though  lessening  trouble  and  came 
into  conflict  with  the  reason  of  the  community  at  this 
time  and  on  this  topic.  It  was  my  approval  of  propa- 
gaudism.  Into  my  blood  had  grown  through  the  cent- 
uries of  Christendom  the  feeling  that  a  faith  could  not 
well  prove  itself  unless  it  spread  out  amongst  new  and 
alien  peoples.  It  is  the  prerogative  and  principle  of 
belief  to  yearn  for  universality  of  acceptance  amongst 
human  beings.  And  it  urges  on  the  devotees  of  any 
faith  to  spread  it  through  the  world  at  all  costs.  After 
centuries  of  propagandism  the  habit  becomes  an  in- 
stinct, and  it  seems  to  be  a  dictate  of  nature  to  attempt 
to  convert  the  world  to  the  tenets  which  have  grown 
up  in  us  from  infancy  and  been  incorporated  into  our 
very  life.  The  Christian  has  ever  been  from  its  outset 
a  great  missionary  religion,  and  it  is  difficult  for  one 
brought  up  in  Christendom  to  get  rid  of  the  missionary 
attitude  of  mind  which  assumes  every  alien  to  it  to  be 
sunk  in  wickedness  and  unprofitableness,  and  certain 
to  lose  all  the  future  blessings  promised  to  true  be- 
lievers. 

I  could  not  obliterate  this  instinct  wholly  from  my 
nature,  and  whenever  I  reflected  on  the  wisdom  and 
nobleness  of  the  Limanoran  civilisation,  or  noticed  the 
marvellous  progressiveness  of  some  new  phase  of  it,  I 


504  Limanora 

found  myself  longing  to  go  back  to  the  Western  world 
with  my  knowledge.  Thus  I  often  drifted  into  appeals 
to  the  propagandist  spirit  which  I  assumed  to  exist  in 
the  breasts  of  my  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  but  I  was 
not  allowed  to  rest  long  in  such  dreams.  Each  time  I 
uttered  or  even  thought  over  my  missionary  desire,  I 
was  brought  to  book  with  the  widest  of  knowledge  and 
the  keenest  of  penetration  into  human  nature  and  its 
history.  I  felt  that  it  was  almost  as  useless  for  Euro- 
peans to  go  out  amongst  the  tribes  of  monkeys  and 
spend  their  lives  trying  to  bring  them  up  to  such  a 
level  of  intelligence  as  is  implied  in  the  appreciation 
of  the  Christian  religion,  as  for  the  Umanorans  to  apos- 
tolise  amongst  mankind,  and  struggle  to  drag  them  up 
to  the  stage  of  progress  these  islanders  had  reached. 

But  now,  whenever  my  missionary  mood  returned 
upon  me,  my  friends  would  point  with  a  smile  to  the 
new  invention,  the  electro  steriliser;  and  if  pressed  by 
the  disapproving  skepticism  of  my  thoughts,  they 
would  urge  in  words  the  omnipotence  of  this  little  in- 
strument as  the  apostle  of  progress.  By  this  and  this 
alone  was  the  snail-pace  advance  of  mankind  likely  to 
be  quickened.  Without  more  rapid  elimination  of  the 
unfit  than  was  afforded  by  natural  selection,  sexual 
selection,  and  the  accidents  of  surroundings,  there  was 
little  hope  of  wise  propagation  of  the  human  race.  The 
blunders  and  defects  and  maladies  of  every  new  century 
were  treasured  up  by  heredity  in  the  tissues  of  man- 
kind along  with  any  feeble  tendency  to  advance  that 
might  appear.  The  struggle  was  a  losing  one  in  spite 
of  the  development  of  science  and  wealth.  And  all  re- 
forming theories  and  efforts  were  but  stumblings  in 
the  dark  till  there  had  been  a  thorough  purgation  of 
traditional  and  epidemic  diseases,  moral  as  well  as  phy- 


Another  Threat  505 

sical.  Nine  tenths  of  the  race,  as  at  present  consti- 
tuted, were  unworthy  to  hand  on  their  natures  to 
posterity.  Under  the  regime  of  propagational  license 
universal  among  all  peoples  of  the  earth,  the  evil  and 
diseased  multiplied  at  a  much  greater  rate  than  the 
sound  in  mind  and  bod)r.  The  progressive  element  in 
mankind  was  dragged  back  by  the  dead  weight  of  the 
criminal,  the  diseased,  the  habitually  pauper,  and  the 
naturally  incompetent.  Some  religions  even  set  them- 
selves to  encourage  the  vitalisation  and  propagation  of 
the  last.  It  was  noble  and  good  to  assuage  the  evils 
that  heredity  had  accumulated  in  their  systems;  but  it 
was  anything  but  noble  and  good  to  encourage  them  to 
perpetuate  their  misfortunes  throughout  a  wide  pos- 
terity. "  Multiply  "  should  be  the  last  word  of  an  ad- 
vancing civilisation  instead  of  the  first,  unless  there  be 
added  to  it  the  condition  "  only  the  best."  And  who 
cares  or  dares  to  preach  this  true  gospel  of  progress, 
when  it  touches  a  theme  that  all  are  ashamed  to  men- 
tion ?  If  ever  there  was  a  sacred  mission  upon  earth 
it  would  be  that  of  the  man  who  should  go  to  the  wise 
and  good  men  of  all  nations  and  put  into  their  hands 
the  secret  of  the  idlumian,  or  who  should  himself  pass 
round  the  world  and  sterilise  all  the  morally  or  physi- 
cally diseased  amongst  rich  and  poor,  amongst  gentle 
and  simple.  Within  two  generations  the  races  of  hu- 
manity would  take  such  a  leap  into  light  and  noble 
vitality  and  love  of  progress  as  would  make  the  most 
brilliant  civilisation  of  the  past  seem  barbaric.  Then 
would  they  take  command  of  their  own  destiny,  and 
look  unflinchingly  into  the  future  for  the  path  they 
should  take.  Advance  in  material  or  in  the  accumu- 
lation of  force  is  vain,  unless  it  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
such  universal  moral  and  intellectual  advance.     It  is 


506  Limanora 

progress  in  the  human   system   through  all   its  parts 
that  should  be  the  aim  of  every  race. 

I  gradually  came  to  understand  the  importance  they 
attached  to  this  new  instrument  as  the  most  humane 
and  effective  of  missionaries.  Had  it  come  before  their 
great  series  of  purgations,  there  would  have  been  little 
need  for  the  expatriation  policy.  If  they  had  had  to 
eject,  they  would  have  taken  care  that  the  different 
sections  of  exiles  should  vanish  in  a  generation.  They 
shrank  from  extinguishing  the  individual  life  that  had 
already  been  brought  into  being.  They  would  have 
had  no  scruple  in  giving  euthanasia  to  an  evil  race  or 
a  section  of  a  race;  for  this  meant  only  preventing  a 
posterity  coming  into  existence  to  take  up  their  burden 
of  evil.  And  even  now  it  was  a  question  to  be  seriously 
discussed  and  answered  whether  they  would  not  sweep 
out  the  pollution  from  the  rest  of  the  archipelago  by 
the  help  of  this  humane  little  doorkeeper  of  posterity. 
Would  it  not  prevent  the  lifelong  evil  of  thousands? 
Where  lay  the  humanity  or  love  in  allowing  a  retro- 
gressive and  unhappy  race  to  hand  on  to  myriads  to 
come  the  evil  they  had  received  from  their  ancestors  ? 


CHAPTER  IX 


POLITY 


I  WAS  privileged  to  hear,  or  rather  to  be  conscious 
of,  the  discussion  that  the  question  of  idlumian- 
missionaryism  underwent.  I  had  now  reached  the  age 
and  stage  of  my  training  which  gave  me  the  entry  as 
audience  to  the  councils  of  the  race.  It  would  not  have 
been  wise  to  admit  to  the  treatment  of  difficult  and  ad- 
vanced themes  natures  that  were  still  hemmed  in  by 
the  limits  of  long-past  ages  of  history.  They  could 
not  have  sympathised  in,  or  even  followed,  the  attitude 
taken  up  by  the  elders  of  the  people;  and  they  would 
have  gone  back  from  the  meeting  with  minds  perplexed 
and  bewildered  by  questions  too  complex  and  futuritive 
for  them  to  fathom.  Many  of  them  would  have  suf- 
fered a  warping  of  their  natures  from  the  strain,  and 
this  would  have  meant  years  of  additional  training 
and  care  to  set  it  right.  The  exclusion  of  the  imma- 
ture from  the  national  councils  was  a  matter  of  educa- 
tional policy  rather  than  of  political  necessity. 

It  was  evidently  for  my  own  benefit  that  I  was  pre- 
sent at  the  discussion  of  the  sterilising  embassy.  This 
was  somewhat  difficult  for  me  to  follow,  for  my  mag- 
netic power  and  faculties  had  not  been  developed 
enough   to  interpret   the   silences   between    the    rare 

507 


508  Limanora 

speeches.  As  I  sat,  my  mind  ran  back  to  a  Quakers' 
meeting  to  which  I  had  been  taken  by  my  mother;  then 
much  self-control  had  been  necessary  in  order  to  re- 
strain the  expression  of  my  amusement;  now  I  felt  as 
if  in  the  presence  of  gods  who  needed  none  of  the  bab- 
ble of  human  speech  to  open  a  pathway  from  mind  to 
mind.  I  had  sloughed  off  that  singular  prepossession 
of  the  Western  nature  in  favour  of  verbal  intercourse 
and  had  ceased  to  think  that  silence,  where  two  or 
three  were  gathered  together,  was  a  mark  of  inanity, 
or  incompetence,  or  at  least  passivity.  I  remembered 
with  a  shudder  the  awkwardness  that  accompanied 
social  lockjaw,  even  where  friends  met;  each  grew 
afraid  of  the  thoughts  of  the  others;  none  knew  what 
the  silence  meant;  everyone  was  frantically  .searching 
for  something  that  would  break  the  gag  without  ap- 
pearing unnatural.  Loquacity,  instead  of  being  a  bar 
to  ideas,  was  counted  an  accomplishment;  and  freedom 
of  speech  was  one  of  the  great  political  watchwords.  It 
was  only  on  rare  occasions  that  reserve  was  not  con- 
sidered a  defect. 

Now  I  felt  that  there  was  nothing  so  powerful  as 
these  silences  in  council.  The  magnetism  of  thought 
and  feeling  was  flowing  from  mind  to  mind,  all  the 
more  that  there  was  not  a  word  or  sound  to  interrupt 
it.  Now  and  again,  when  the  divergence  of  thoughts 
was  dominant,  one  of  the  oldest  and  wisest  would  call 
them  in  from  their  different  tracks  to  a  common  centre. 
Speech  was  rather  a  method  of  focussing  thoughts  than 
one  of  chasing  and  criticising  them.  The  speaker 
would  review  all  the  mental  discussion  and  concentrate 
its  lines,  so  that  everyone  present  might  have  a  view  of 
the  whole  field  from  a  high  point.  It  was  marvellous 
how  rapidly  they  went  though  the  business  in  hand  by 


Polity 


509 


means  of  these  noble  silences,  broken  by  occasional  re- 
views. There  were  no  displays  of  mental  or  stylistic 
legerdemain,  no  appeals  to  common  feeling,  no  captious 
criticisms,  such  as  form  the  staple  of  a  debate  in  a 
Western  assembly  even  of  the  wisest  men.  Kvery  fal- 
lacy that  crept  into  the  discussion  was  unmasked  in  a 
gentle,  fair,  and  kindly  way.  There  was  no  partisan- 
ship, no  war-whoop  of  prospective  victory,  no  lash  of 
sarcasm,  and  they  abhorred  above  all  things  the  sweet- 
ness of  harangue. 

Yet,  the  absence  of  Western  methods  of  beating  out 
a  subject  was  a  disadvantage  for  me,  who  had  as  yet 
little  of  the  magnetic  penetration  or  sympathy  needed 
for  the  appreciation  of  their  meetings.  But  my  deep 
reverence  for  the  humanity  of  the  elders,  and  great 
sympathy  for  their  aims,  made  up  in  part  for  the  lack 
of  magnetic  interpretation  of  their  thoughts.  At  the 
close  of  the  council  I  talked  the  matter  over  with  my 
proparents,  and  eked  out  my  own  observations  and  re- 
flections on  its  proceedings  and  thus  came  to  a  just 
view  of  the  whole  discussion. 

They  were  strongly  impelled  by  their  love  of  the  hu- 
man race  to  the  missionary  course,  which  would  now 
be  so  simple  and  effective.  Missionaryism  before  meant 
the  hoisting  of  every  separate  alien  and  barbarous  na- 
ture up  to  a  higher  platform,  and  continuing  the  pro- 
cess with  generation  after  generation,  a  gigantic  task. 
There  was  more  chance  of  the  missionaries  levelling 
down  to  the  civilisation  of  their  converts  than  of  ac- 
complishing their  original  purpose,  while  the  arguing, 
preaching,  and  persuading  implied  a  Niagara  of  bab- 
ble for  centuries.  Where  would  lie  the  compensation  for 
such  abasement  of  the  mind  ?  Now  there  was  no  need 
of  condescension;  it  was  a  mere  matter  of  common 


510  Limanora 

professional  work  for  the  physiological  families.  The 
glib  energy  of  the  old  process  was  evaded  and  in  its  place 
came  the  need  of  wide  practical  knowledge  and  keen 
judgment.  For  tongue-force  and  subtlety  of  reasoning 
were  substituted  physiological  exactness  and  selective 
talent.  The  process  was  now  elimi native  rather  than 
directly  creative. 

But  such  pleading  ignored  the  true  difficulty,  the 
acquisition  of  so  large  a  knowledge  of  local  and  tem- 
poral conditions  as  would  enable  them  to  foresee  the 
full  effects  of  the  step.  How  were  they  to  be  certain 
that  only  the  nobler  natures  would  hand  themselves  on 
in  each  race  ?  Streams  from  the  barbarous  and  evil 
past  might  flow  through  the  mothers.  Who  could 
guarantee  that  the  reduced  numbers  of  the  next  gen- 
eration would  be  able  to  accumulate  energy  quickly 
enough  to  keep  the  mastery  of  the  earth  against  its 
unreasoning  and  unmoral  powers?  As  it  was,  the  peo- 
ples were  able  to  fight  with  the  seasons  and  the  forces 
of  climate  and  weather,  and  with  the  exuberance  of 
the  plant  and  animal  kingdoms.  If  their  numbers 
were  greatly  lessened  by  the  elimination  of  the  coarser 
natures,  would  not  the  balance  be  destroyed,  and  the 
natural  enemies  of  man  have  the  best  of  it  ? 

Questions  like  these  made  them  pause.  To  be  able 
to  answer  them  would  need  prolonged  and  minute  in- 
vestigation of  the  human  race  and  its  conditions,  per- 
haps consuming  centuries  in  the  task.  Meantime 
their  own  forward  march  would  have  to  be  abandoned. 
Omniscience  alone  could  deal  with  the  problem  of  mis- 
sionaryism,  and  as  things  were,  the  omniscience  of 
nature  was  dealing  with  it.  For  evolution  was  proceed- 
ing throughout  the  universe,  however  slowly.  Those 
races  that  seemed  to  be  laggards  on  the  upward  path 


Polity 


5ii 


were  evolving  what  was  needed  on  their  part  for  the 
advance  of  the  whole  army  of  creation,  and  death  was 
ever  opening  new  careers  for  the  vital  force  of  their  in- 
dividuals. It  was  difficult  to  tell  without  complete 
knowledge  of  all  the  conditions  whether  the  spread  of 
a  certain  faith  or  phase  of  civilisation  was  going  to  be 
beneficent  or  maleficent  for  the  world  as  a  whole.  And 
all  missionaryism  that  was  not  based  on  omniscience 
was  striking  out  a  path  through  a  jungle  in  the  dark- 
ness. Even  the  idlurnian,  unless  amongst  criminals 
and  the  morally  and  intellectually  plague-stricken, 
might  do  irremediable  injury  to  the  prospects  of  the 
human  race.  The  problem  of  propagandism  was,  as 
often  before,  abandoned  as  too  complicated  and  too  far- 
reaching  for  limited  knowledge  and  brain  power. 

But  the  discussion  gave  me  an  insight  into  what  I  had 
long  been  curious  about,  their  polity  and  methods  of 
guiding  the  course  of  their  commonweal.  I  had  not 
dared  to  inquire  into  the  subject  lest  I  should  meet 
with  some  rebuff,  or  find  that  I  had  been  too  inquisitive 
where  reverence  was  needed.  Nor  had  I  been  able  to 
see  much  evidence  of  government  or  legislation,  and 
had  almost  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was 
no  such  thing  in  Limanora  as  sovereignty  or  state. 
Though  everything  moved  with  the  harmony  and 
smoothness  of  perfect  organisation  I  could  never  find 
the  organising  hand. 

At  last  I  discovered  part,  at  least,  of  the  machinery 
of  government.  There  was  one  assembly  or  council 
to  which  reformers  could  appeal  with  their  schemes. 
The  whole  community  often  assembled;  but  it  seemed 
to  me  that  it  was  more  for  training,  for  the  reintegra- 
tion of  some  faculty  or  feeling,  or  for  the  purification 


512  Limanora 

and  elevation  of  the  life,  than  for  legislative  purposes. 
The  only  trace  of  any  approach  to  selection  and  de- 
cision in  these  national  gatherings  was  to  be  found  in 
Loomiefa  and  in  the  linguistic  assemblies;  in  the  one 
they  practically  accepted  or  rejected  some  proposed  re- 
vision of  their  ideals  placed  before  them  in  a  new  book; 
in  the  other  they  decided  whether  a  new  word,  or  the 
adaptation  or  application  of  a  word  was  worthy  to  live 
or  die,  whether  a  new  sense  deserved  to  be  kept  alive 
in  a  form  set  apart  for  it,  or  whether  a  new  distinction 
was  real  or  merely  verbal.  I  could  see  that  these  were 
the  two  great  functions  of  a  national  assembly,  to  ac- 
cept or  reject  a  new  departure  in  life  or  in  language, 
to  see  that  the  path  into  the  darkness  of  the  unknown 
was  the  right  path,  and  that  the  verbal  armour  and 
weapons  they  bore  allowed  of  no  enemy  near.  Dis- 
covery and  advance  had  their  own  pitfalls  and  risks; 
but  the  language  they  used  in  investigation  and  re- 
search was  the  most  natural  ambush  of  fallacies  and  the 
scientific  work  of  a  generation  might  be  rendered  nuga- 
tory by  an  ambiguous  word  or  phrase.  In  past  time 
they  could  point  out  many  ages,  which  had  prided 
themselves  on  the  marvels  of  their  progress  in  science 
and  were  now  regarded  as  barren  and  unprogressive; 
their  advance  had  been  apparent  and  not  real,  a  mere 
change  of  nomenclature  and  not  a  change  of  ideas  or  a 
discovery  of  facts.  It  was  natural  then  that  the  com- 
munity, as  a  whole,  should,  from  the  mere  instinct  of 
self-preservation,  keep  the  most  watchful  eye  on  this 
unguarded  frontier  of  language,  and  almost  as  eager 
an  eye  on  the  regions  that  lay  before  them,  the  ideals 
they  were  about  to  adopt. 

I  had  now  been  led  to  see  that  there  was  a  council  for 
the  decision  of  foreign  questions,  for  it  was  this  that 


Polity  5T3 


rejected  the  new  idea  of  the  idlumian  mission.  I  soon 
came  to  recognise  its  domestic  functions  as  more  im- 
portant than  its  policy  abroad.  The  latter  occupied  its 
attention  only  once  or  twice  in  a  generation.  Monthly, 
almost  weekly,  it  met  to  agree  on  questions  and  schemes 
which  had  no  connection  with  the  world  outside  of 
Iyimanora.  Now  that  I  was  inspired  to  attend  its 
meetings,  I  felt  that  it  safeguarded  the  march  forward. 
It  never  passed  a  law;  and  yet  its  decisions  were  as 
clear,  as  valid,  and  as  universal  in  their  effects  as  if 
the}7  had  been  written  out,  proclaimed,  and  printed  in 
a  statute-book.  All  the  parents,  proparents,  and  guar- 
dians were  members  of  it,  and  along  with  them  were 
associated  as  silent,  inactive  members  the  young  men 
and  women  who  had  matured  and  had  shown  sufficient 
of  the  wisdom  and  virtues  of  the  race  to  warrant  such 
a  privilege.  These  latter  were  in  training  for  full  and 
active  membership  many  years  before  their  spirit  and 
influence  were  felt  to  have  bearing  on  an}7  decision. 
On  this  basis  I  had  been  admitted  to  the  meetings. 

The  scheme  of  every  new  book  came  before  this 
assembly  prior  to  its  publication  in  L,oomiefa.  Every 
new  departure  on  the  part  of  any  family  was  brought 
up  by  its  heads  to  be  tested  by  the  feeling  of  the 
council.  But  it  rarely  happened  that  any  scheme  was 
rejected;  it  was,  as  a  rule,  only  revised  and  modified. 
In  fact,  every  parent  or  guardian  was  so  keenly  in 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  and  genius  of  the  race  that  it 
was  almost  impossible  for  any  proposal  or  idea  to  come 
from  a  family  in  antagonism  to  the  general  welfare 
and  feeling.  One  feature  that  struck  me  as  mark- 
ing their  meetings  was  the  absence  of  those  search- 
ing, flaw-finding  criticisms  we  would  have  considered 
absolutely  necessary  to  progress  in  the  West;    every 


514  Limanora 

modification  suggested  was  an  improvement  or  addition 
readily  welcomed  by  the  author  and  his  family.  The 
council  was  there  to  help  and  develop,  and  not  to  be 
hypercritical  or  censorious.  Every  thinker  or  inventor 
was  eager  to  bring  his  work  before  it;  instead  of  fear- 
ing its  criticism  as  an  ordeal  he  knew  that  his  creation 
would  have  its  true  spirit  appreciated,  and  if  there  was 
genuine  and  original  work  in  it,  it  would  meet  with  its 
due;  whatever  was  likely  to  aid  the  race  in  its  forward 
march  would  be  welcomed  and  aided. 

Another  branch  of  its  duties  was  the  preparation  of 
practical  problems  and  difficulties  which  were  likely  to 
obstruct  the  national  progress  till  they  were  solved. 
The  council  thought  over  these  as  they  came  up  in 
their  minds,  and  tried  to  get  at  their  fundamental 
form  or  principle.  After  having  ruminated  over  them 
for  months,  or  perhaps  years,  it  indicated  the  family 
in  whose  province  they  lay,  and  handed  them  over  to 
it  as  part  of  its  duty  thereafter.  In  fact,  the  debatable 
borderland  between  family  and  family  was  evidently 
one  of  its  most  important  spheres.  Not  that  any 
family  ever  desired  to  evade  what  might  be  included 
in  its  functions  or  offices,  but,  on  the  contrary,  was 
eager  to  do  all  that  in  it  lay  for  the  benefit  of  the  race. 
Often,  however,  spheres  overlapped,  so  that  two  differ- 
ent families  or  individuals  were  doing  the  same  thing; 
and  it  was  necessary  to  define  and  apportion  the  duty 
of  each. 

In  all  the  meetings  and  discussions  I  came  gradually 
to  feel  that  there  was  a  dominating  spirit  that  influ- 
enced from  behind  the  scenes.  I  could  see  no  overt 
mastery  or  guidance  of  the  proceedings,  )-et  there 
was  manifest  an  organising  power  within  its  organism. 


Polity 


5i5 


Schemes  and  problems  came  before  it  in  lucid  order 
and  a  definite  shape  leaving  no  room  for  mere  idle  con- 
jectures. As  the  treatment  of  any  one  proceeded,  I 
could  feel  the  magnetism  of  strong,  harmonious  spirits 
moulding  and  bending  the  thoughts.  I  knew  that  I 
was  in  tutelage,  although  there  was  no  open  dictation 
or  even  guidance. 

After  a  time  I  began  to  trace  the  vigorous  currents 
of  influence  that  swept  us  on  with  such  force,  to  the 
oldest  men  and  women  in  the  council,  those  who  in 
Europe  would  have  been  thrust  aside  as  incapable  of 
good  advice  and  as  on  the  borders  of  second  childhood. 
I  could  see  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  most  members  to 
look  to  them  for  the  cue,  when  thoughts  had  begun  to 
wander  and  part  company.  They  did  not  claim  su- 
perior authority,  but  the  deference  to  their  opinion  and 
instincts  was  spontaneous  and  palpable,  and  often  grew 
into  the  deepest  reverence.  This  would  never  have 
awakened  the  notice  of  an  unsympathetic  stranger,  so 
little  was  the  feeling  expressed  in  open  word  or  act. 

In  this  way  I  learned,  before  many  years'  experience 
of  the  council,  that  there  was  an  inner  council  or  cabi- 
net, consisting  of  all  the  elders  who  had  proved  them- 
selves able  and  wise  by  centuries  of  discovery,  or 
invention,  or  penetrative  and  far-reaching  advice.  I 
could  discover  no  formal  election  to  it,  everything  in 
the  shape  of  definite  constitution  or  government  bein°- 
manifestly  avoided.  Age  did  not  form  the  qualification 
for  this  senate  although  all  the  senators  were  men  and 
women  who  could  count  their  years  by  hundreds. 
Many  who  were  older  than  they  still  remained  outside 
the  charmed  circle.  It  was  rather  weight  of  experience, 
and  the  fulness  of  development  resulting  from  it,  that 
admitted.     Whosoever  by  living  long  had  made  the 


516  Limanora 

most  of  life  in  the  line  of  greatest  progress  was  singled 
out  by  the  reverence  paid  to  his  lofty  character  and  ex- 
pansive wisdom,  for  the  duty  of  piloting  the  race.  It 
took  years  of  massive  growth  in  personality  and  influ- 
ence to  make  the  community  or  the  man  certain  that 
he  had  been  selected  by  the  national  spirit.  The  re- 
sponsibility was  so  onerous  that  the  wisest  shrank  for 
years  from  it,  fearing  they  had  not  developed  suffi- 
ciently. It  was  only  with  reluctance  that  they  at  last 
listened  to  the  call  of  their  fellows  and  entered  the 
noblest  of  all  senates.  None  sought  the  honour,  but 
once  undertaken,  none  attempted  to  shift  the  burdens 
of  it  onto  other  shoulders  till  the  nausea  of  life,  indi- 
cating the  approach  of  their  mortal  liberation,  came 
upon  them.  No  one  was  jealous  of  their  authority  or 
influence;  for  all  knew  that  these  they  would  have  had 
by  virtue  of  their  nature  and  advance,  even  if  they  had 
no  seat  in  this  inner  assembly.  And  every  type  of  family 
had  its  representative  there,  the  ablest,  the  wisest,  the 
noblest,  generally  the  oldest  of  the  group,  whether  man 
or  woman.  For  there  was  great  need  in  its  councils 
of  someone  minutely  familiar  with  the  practical  func- 
tions and  duties  of  every  science  and  art  in  the  island. 
Sex  made  no  distinction  in  the  choice;  sex  was  a  mere 
accident  in  the  realm  of  reason  and  wisdom ;  sometimes 
the  greater  brain-power  and  greater  moral  and  intellec- 
tual development  belonged  to  the  male  head  of  the 
family,  sometimes  to  the  female;  and  it  never  entered 
the  minds  of  this  strange  people  to  discount  position  or 
influence  because  of  sex. 

In  all  differences  of  opinion  their  decision  was  final. 
For  everyone  felt  that  the  race  could  not  possibly  at 
that  particular  stage  of  its  progress  attain  to  any  clearer 
light  upon  the  subject  than  this  areopagus  had  attained. 


Polity 


5i7 


The  upholders  of  the  clashing  views  received  the  de- 
cision as  coining  from  a  tribunal,  the  most  impartial 
and  the  farthest -seeing  that  could  be  found  on  earth. 
But  it  was  seldom  that  any  division  of  view  came  as 
far  as  a  controversy  which  needed  the  influence  of  the 
elders.  Where  two  individuals  or  families  began  to 
feel  their  opinions  on  any  common  topic  drawing  apart, 
they  each  made  eager  efforts  to  understand  the  other's 
point  of  view;  and  their  neighbours,  recognising  a  dis- 
cord in  the  mental  atmosphere,  came  in  with  reconcil- 
ing magnetism  and  reason.  Everyone  was  too  anxious 
to  have  the  light  of  others'  thoughts  thrown  on  the 
matters  he  had  to  investigate  or  consider,  to  reject  in 
haste  a  view  that  differed  from  his,  or  to  let  his  own 
view  become  unreasoning  prejudice.  I  never  perceived 
among  them  any  of  that  bickering  or  heat  which  so 
common!}'  attends  a  misunderstanding  in  Europe. 
Eong  after  arriving  in  the  island  I  still  wondered  where 
their  courts  of  law  were;  and  thought  there  must  be 
some  secret  tribunal  that  dealt  summarily  with  all  dis- 
putes. I  came  at  last  to  see  that  there  was  no  need  of 
courts  of  justice,  for  there  was  never  any  approach  to 
jarring  or  litigation;  and,  most  of  all,  there  was  no 
written  law  to  appeal  to.  It  was  one  of  the  primary 
principles  of  their  life  that  any  law  that  needed  com- 
mittal to  writing  was  either  artificial,  and  so  beyond 
the  necessities  of  the  community,  or  implied  a  flaw  in 
the  nature  of  the  race  demanding  instant  attention. 
Written  law,  like  overt  authority,  was  an  evidence  of 
elements  in  a  community  which  were  alien  and  had 
better  be  eliminated.  Hostile  individuals  or  factions 
made  a  body  of  recorded  laws,  backed  up  by  force,  a 
necessity  throughout  the  nations  of  the  world,  and 
rendered    most    of    them     practically    uuprogressive. 


518  Limanora 

Since  the  great  series  of  purgations  the  spirit  of  the 
Limanoran  community,  working  through  the  electric 
sense,  had  been  the  master  of  its  unity  and  progress, 
and  it  appeared  idle  to  make  or  write  laws.  Every  ad- 
vance it  achieved  made  every  individual  at  once  debtor 
to  it;  all  moved  up  to  the  new  level.  The  laws,  if  those 
principles  which  were  continually  being  revised  and 
constantly  progressing  could  be  called  so,  were  writ- 
ten in  the  hearts  and  natures  of  the  race;  every  new 
amendment  of  them  was  the  natural  demand  of  the 
racial  spirit  and  passed  at  once  through  the  elders,  the 
parents,  and  the  guardiaus  into  the  conscience  of  all 
the  families  and  individuals.  Every  man  was  a  law  to 
himself,  in  that  he  knew  and  fully  recognised  the  aim 
of  the  community  and  the  part  he  had  to  fulfil  in  its 
advance.  Those  who  were  still  in  a  state  of  pupillage 
had  each  two  elders  as  their  guarantors  and  sponsors, 
who  watched  the  instillation  of  the  common  spirit  into 
them,  and  any  flaw  or  discord  rapidly  made  itself  felt. 
Reason  was  at  the  back  of  every  word  and  act  of  the 
Limanorans;  a  new  feature  or  thought  or  discovery 
had  to  prove  itself  worthy  and  real  before  it  was  ac- 
cepted. There  was  no  such  thing  as  an  appeal  to 
authority.  Everyone  knew  that  he  would  have  to 
reason  out  and  make  clear  the  nobleness  of  what  he 
expected  others  to  believe  or  agree  to.  It  was  one  of 
the  main  functions,  the  most  urgent  duty,  of  the  two 
councils,  therefore,  to  revise  the  axioms  and  postulates 
in  which  the  national  reason  found  its  leverage  and  to 
see  that  they  never  became  mere  prejudices.  Every 
new  advance  antiquated  some  principle  that  had  been 
taken  as  axiomatic,  or  revealed  the  fallacy  that  lay  in 
some  pivot-word.  Any  difference  of  opinion  or  of  point 
of  view  generally  set  the  inner  council  on  the  alert. 


Polity 


5i9 


Not  infrequently  they  found  that  one  investigator  had 
been  misled  by  a  verbal  fallacy  or  a  mistaken  axiom, 
whilst  the  other  had  in  searching  laid  his  mind  open  to 
the  light  of  truth.  They  never  rejected  as  trifling  or 
insignificant  any  divergence  in  the  views  of  a  common 
topic,  but  rather  welcomed  it  as  evidence  of  some  long- 
hidden  flaw  in  the  foundations  of  their  reason. 

Another  striking  feature  of  this  inner  council  was 
that  their  meetings  were  open  to  all  but  the  young  and 
immature.  They  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
secret  conclave,  which,  they  held,  was  the  beginning 
and  principle  of  despotism.  Away  from  the  sunlight 
of  truth  and  open  thought  the  most  ghastly  spiritual 
diseases  of  humanity  sprang  into  being  and  flourished; 
thoughts  and  feelings,  otherwise  healthy  and  un- 
ashamed, became  sickly,  morbid,  and  often  venomous. 
Resolutions  passed  in  secrecy  need  have  no  assigned 
reasons,  and  are  soon  passed  without  discussion  and 
without  any  reason  but  the  lower  private  feelings  and 
prejudices  of  individual  members.  A  mystery  is  at- 
tached to  the  proceedings  of  such  conclaves  that  gives 
well-nigh  omnipotence  to  the  terror  they  instil.  Hence 
until  their  doom  is  near  they  are  by  nature  and  of  ne- 
cessity despotism.  To  every  meeting  of  the  inner  coun- 
cil all  active  councillors  of  the  larger  assembly  were 
welcomed.  But,  when  present,  they  kept  silence,  and 
preferred  to  keep  silence.  Nay,  it  was  considered  a 
special  privilege  for  one  of  the  senate  to  withhold  his 
thoughts  from  the  discussions;  silence  for  a  year  or  two 
was  the  hard-earned  reward  for  years  of  painfully 
guarded  responsibility  in  debate.  Not  one  of  them  but 
looked  forward  to  such  a  breathing-time  for  relaxation, 
so  heavy  was  the  care  of  the  future  of  the  race.  To 
speak  was  the  burden;  for  speech  must  be  weighty,  and 


520  Limanora 

the  recording  linasans  automatically  treasured  it  up  for 
future  years  to  shed  light  and  criticism  on  it. 

In  fact  their  senate-house  was  arranged  so  as  to  be 
a  vast  linasan  itself.  Nothing  was  needed  at  the  end 
of  a  meeting  but  to  touch  a  spring,  and  the  mov- 
ing irelium-strip,  on  which  the  proceedings  imprinted 
themselves,  was  securely  fixed  on  its  roll  and  trans- 
ferred to  the  valley  of  memories  there  to  be  laid  past 
in  the  archives  for  future  reference,  and  a  fresh  strip 
took  its  place  ready  for  the  next  debate.  Knowing  this 
each  senator  weighed  his  every  word  with  the  utmost 
care.  Whatever  building  was  used  as  a  meeting-place 
for  discussion  by  either  the  whole  of  the  people  or  any 
section  of  it  had  its  dome  constructed  in  such  a  way  as 
to  serve  as  a  collector  and  magnifier  of  sound,  so  arranged 
that  the  sound  should  not  echo  back  but  pass  instead 
into  the  receiver  of  a  great  linasan  and  at  once  in- 
delibly record  itself,  thus  making  every  member  of  the 
community  set  a  watch  upon  his  lips  and  allow  only  the 
maturest  wisdom  to  pass  them. 

The  memories  of  the  Limanorans  were  marvellous  in 
their  precision  and  tenacity.  They  could  ransack  the 
records  of  any  man's  brain  in  sleep  with  the  greatest  mi- 
nuteness, though  they  did  not  care  to  use  this  process  on 
anyone  beyond  the  stage  of  probation  and  pupillage;  it 
implied  something  not  unlike  prying  into  the  secrets  of 
the  nature.  They  knew,  too,  how  inexact  the  senses 
are  in  their  reports  of  what  takes  place  in  the  world 
without.  Refined  and  trained  as  they  were,  there  was 
always  a  liability  to  error.  Whenever  exactitude  of 
record  was  required  they  used  machine-reporters  which 
never  made  mistake  except  when  their  gearing  was  out 
of  order.     At  all  important  assemblies  and  gatherings 


Polity 


i2I 


they  had  an  instrument  called  an  idrolinasan  which  re- 
corded in  permanence  not  merely  all  that  was  said  or 
done,  but  the  electric  currents  which  passed  from  man 
to  man.  Whenever  they  needed  to  verify  a  memory 
of  the  past,  the  irelium-strip  of  the  particular  occur- 
rence was  brought  out  of  the  historical  archives  and 
placed  in  the  reversible  idrolinasan,  and  the  whole 
scene  flashed  vividly  before  the  senses.  Doubtless  this 
custom  of  machine-recording  made  the  Ljmanorans  so 
watchful  of  all  they  said  and  did  and  thought;  and  it 
was  perhaps  this  as  much  as  any  of  the  wonderful 
features  of  their  civilisation  that  quickened  the  pace 
of  their  personal  development  in  more  recent  years. 
They  made  every  effort  their  natures  were  capable  of 
to  think  and  say  and  do  what  was  worthy  of  themselves 
and  their  people.  Nothing  retards  the  progress  of 
Western  civilisation  so  much  as  the  relaxed  habit  of 
life  that  even  the  best  men  and  women  fall  into,  when 
others  are  not  likely  to  see  or  hear  them.  Religion 
invented  the  all-watchfulness  of  God  in  order  to  provide 
a  substitute  for  the  consciousness  of  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  others.  But  it  is  too  distant  and  incorporeal  to 
strike  a  highly  materialised  civilisation  as  real;  and 
the  belief  acts  only  for  a  brief  period  after  it  has  been 
impressed  upon  the  mind.  The  economy  of  breath  in 
churches  and  of  evidence  in  law  courts  would  be  so 
great  if  some  of  those  instruments  were  introduced 
into  the  West,  that  Europe  would  not  know  itself  within 
a  few  years,  it  would  develop  and  progress  intellect- 
ually and  morally  with  such  rapidit)\  But  the  most 
striking  result  would  appear  in  politics  and  legislation. 
The  machine  would  influence  the  speech  and  .action  of 
the  legislators  as  powerfully  as  if  they  believed  every 
moment  that  the  omni-watchfulness  of  the  deity  were  as 


522  Limanora 

real  as  the  presence  of  the  Speaker  in  the  chamber. 
There  could  be  no  revisal  of  its  hansardisings;  every 
politician  would  be  as  true,  as  reverential,  as  weighed 
down  with  the  responsibility  of  his  duties  as  if  he  were 
before  the  final  judgment-seat. 

These  machines  had  had  a  wonderful  effect  even  upon 
the  advanced  Limanoran  polity.  Not  even  a  gesture 
was  wasted  in  their  assemblies.  Everything  done  and 
said  was  relevant  and  weighty.  The  result  was  they 
acted  as  if  they  were  one  man  and  their  meetings  were 
brief  and  effective;  where  a  Western  legislature  would 
discuss  a  scheme  or  proposal  for  years,  a  few  minutes 
would  suffice  a  Limanoran  assembly  to  get  at  the  heart 
of  it,  and  accept  or  reject  it.  They  seldom  had  to  re- 
trace their  steps;  if  they  did,  the  error  was  due  to  some 
mistaken  principle  accepted  in  past  ages  as  an  axiom, 
or  to  some  undetected  fallacy  in  a  pivot-word.  The 
proposer  of  the  scheme  had  the  responsibility  of  making 
every  feature  and  consequence  of  it  clear;  he  must  not, 
and  would  not,  conceal  anything  that  might  militate 
against  its  acceptance;  he  had  discussed  it  fully  with 
his  family,  and  seen  in  their  criticisms  and  suggestions 
everything  that  might  be  amended.  There  was,  there- 
fore, not  a  minute  lost  on  defective  arrangement  or 
statement. 

It  was  astonishing  how  rarely  the  councils  had  to 
meet,  and  how  brief  their  meetings  were.  And  this 
was  the  reason  why  I  had  been  so  long  in  discovering 
any  trace  of  constitution  or  polity  in  their  midst.  One 
of  their  favourite  maxims  was  that  an  organism  to  be 
healthy  must  work  without  calling  attention  to  itself. 
And  this  is  truest  of  all  in  politics.  The  government 
that   is  never  seen  or  heard  or  felt,  and  yet  has  no 


Polity  523 

secrecy  or  need  of  secrecy  about  its  proceedings,  is  the 
most  efficacious  and  wholesome.      Those  loud  demo- 
cracies which  occupy  most  of  their  time  in  discussing 
themselves  and  their  systems  are  corrupt  already  or  on 
the  road  to  corruption.     And  monarchies  that  have  to 
parade  abroad  in  threats  or  expeditions  are  diseased  at 
home  and  afraid  to  become  too  conscious  of  their  dis- 
ease.      :<  The    minimum    of   government   attains   the 
maximum    of    development,"     was    another   of  their 
favourite  sayings.    To  keep  this  sentiment  living,  they 
led  their  youth  back  to  the  study  of  certain  periods  of 
their  past  that  they  were  ashamed  of,  called  the  stag- 
nant ages.     Some  of  them  had  been  republican,  others 
monarchic,    some    religious    or    superstitious,    others 
rationalistic  or  sceptical,  some  warlike,  others  peaceful. 
Their  one  common  characteristic  was  that  the  state  did 
everything  for  the  subjects;  the  island  was  a  nursery, 
the  citizens  were  infants;  no  one  ever  thought  of  taking 
the  initiative  in  any  scheme;  whenever  anything  was 
needed,  the  state  had  to  look  after  it;  the  chief  duty  of 
a  citizen  was  to  talk  and  hold  meetings  and  criticise; 
to  act  was  beyond  his  province;  the  state  had  to  feed 
and  clothe  him  at  last,  and  to  drive  him  to  his  work 
with  the  lash.     It  was  the  lash  that   disciplined  the 
army,  and  urged  it  on  to  battle.     The  state  had  within 
it   or  in   its  service  the  few  who  retained  activity  or 
energy;  and  these  few  knew  how  to  fill  their  own  cof- 
fers better  than  those  of  the  country.     Then  came  dis- 
grace  and   disaster.      Prosperity   and    patriotism    and 
courage  vanished  in  decay  before  the  universal  corrup- 
tion on  the  one  hand  and  the  senile  helplessness  on  the 
other.     And  all  that  remained  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the 
first  ambitious  marauder  who  invaded  the  island. 
There  grew  up  in  the  breasts  of  the  I^imanorans  an 


524  Limanora 

instinctive  fear  of  all  encroachments  of  the  state  on  the 
duties  and  functions  of  the  family  and  the  individual; 
and  those  who  formed  the  inner  council  were  as  deeply 
imbued  with  this  feeling  as  the  rest  of  the  citizens. 
One  of  their  chief  duties  was  to  draw  the  line  with  care 
between  what  could  best  be  done  by  the  separate  units 
of  the  state,  and  what  by  the  state  as  a  whole.  They 
safeguarded  the  independence  of  the  individual,  and 
encouraged  his  initiative  in  order  that  every  tendenc}' 
to  originality  should  flourish,  and  that  the  capability 
of  meeting  emergencies  should  grow  stronger  and 
stronger.  Every  man  on  the  island  knew  that  he  must 
act  for  himself  in  innumerable  circumstances  without 
waiting  for  help  or  counsel.  And  the  women  were 
trained  to  be  similarly  self-reliant.  Readiness  of  re- 
source, confidence,  and  courage  were  universal  charac- 
teristics of  the  people,  and  they  knew  from  their  study 
of  history,  as  well  as  if  they  had  mastered  it  by  experi- 
ence, that  dependence  on  the  action  of  all  and  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  state  would  gradually  destroy 
these. 

It  was,  of  course,  the  elders  who  were  most  keenly 
alive  to  this  fact.  In  their  councils  they  defined  with 
the  most  exceeding  care  what  might  be  done  by  them 
without  injury  to  the  habit  of  presence  of  mind  and 
spontaneity  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  individual  citi- 
zens. What  they  had  chiefly  to  look  after  was  the 
future  of  the  race;  and  everything  done  by  the  citizen 
or  the  family  that  endangered  this  had  to  be  reviewed 
and  corrected  by  them.  But  so  powerful  a  private  in- 
fluence had  each  elder  over  every  individual  of  his 
family  that  interference  in  this  respect  was  seldom 
needed.  The  ideals  held  before  the  race  sank  into  the 
nature   of  every   citizen   and    guided    him  in    all   his 


Polity 


525 


actions,  if  not  now  in  all  his  thoughts.  The  matters 
that  needed  most  deliberation  were  the  revisal  or  ex- 
pansion of  those  ideals,  and  the  selection  of  pairs  for 
marriage  and  parenthood;  they  knew  that  a  mistake 
in  either  of  these  would  lead  to  incalculable  evil,  and 
would  necessitate,  in  retracing  the  step,  long  years  of 
thought  and  labour  besides  the  most  drastic  remedies. 
The  guidance  of  the  great  public  institutions  needed 
little  counsel  or  interference,  but  was  almost  automatic; 
everyone  concerned  knew  by  instinct  what  he  had  to 
do  and  had  its  interests  so  completely  at  heart  that  he 
required  no  reminder  of  the  details  of  his  duty.  The 
inspection  and  review  of  the  various  departments  were 
rather  the  task  of  the  expert  families,  and  chiefly  of 
their  elders,  than  of  the  elders  as  a  whole. 

But  there  was  one  department  for  which  the  inner 
council  or  senate  was  wholly  responsible.  This  was 
Rimla,  or  the  centre  of  force.  Mechanical  power  was 
the  one  thing,  they  had  all  along  felt,  that  must  belong 
to  the  state  and  be  controlled  by  the  state.  All  other 
possessions  (wealth,  property,  reputation)  were  mere 
symbols  of  it.  To  let  it  drift  into  the  hands  of  indi- 
viduals, who  might  grasp  more  than  was  good  for  them 
or  even  monopolise  it,  was  to  endanger  the  future  of 
the  race.  Only  the  wisest  and  best  and  the  most  im- 
bued with  Limanoran  ideals  were  ever  allowed  to  con- 
trol the  concentrated  force  of  the  island.  In  fact  no 
one  but  a  member  of  the  inner  council  could  be  the 
master  of  force,  and  his  term  of  control  was  limited  to  a 
few  hours  at  a  time,  for  which  period  he  was  chosen 
from  day  to  day  from  amongst  the  oldest  and  most  ex- 
perienced of  the  nobler-natured.  It  was  the  greatest 
honour  the  race  could  bestow.     To  be  trusted  by  the 


526  Limanora 

whole  people  with  the  management  and  distribution  of 
that  which  was  the  fulcrum  of  all  progress  was  to  be 
marked  out  as  one  worthy  to  be  divine.  When  I  came 
to  understand  this,  I  saw  the  meaning  of  the  reverence, 
almost  awe,  with  which  the  master  of  force  was  pointed 
out  to  me  on  my  first  visit  to  Rimla.  I  had  not  meas- 
ured the  greatness  of  his  power,  or  seen  that  it  was  far 
more  real  and  comprehensive  than  that  of  any  monarch 
or  despot  that  had  ever  ruled. 

Where  would  their  civilisation  or  their  ideals  or 
great  future  be  without  this  marvellous  concentration 
of  naked  energy  ?  What  would  have  become  of  the 
race,  had  a  base  ambition  or  an  insane  caprice  entered 
into  the  thoughts  of  anyone  of  their  masters  of  force 
while  he  held  the  reins  of  dominion  in  his  hands?  It 
was  the  duty,  therefore,  of  everyone  who  was  elected  to 
the  office,  however  often  he  had  held  it,  however  noble 
he  had  proved  himself,  however  trusted  he  might  be  by 
all,  to  submit  himself  the  hour  before  he  entered  Rimla 
to  the  tests  of  the  inner  nature  and  thoughts  that  the 
race  knew,  and  this  in  presence  of  the  oldest  of  the 
senate.  The  workings  of  his  brain  and  heart  were 
stringently  investigated,  and  after  that  he  was  sent  to 
sleep,  in  order  to  have  his  dreams  read  and  interpreted. 
If  any  of  the  tests  gave  dubious  answer,  he  resigned 
his  office  and  another  was  chosen  in  his  place.  For 
almost  a  generation  this  had  never  occurred,  yet  the 
precautions  were  as  rigidly  enforced  as  if  the  tests  had 
often  revealed  defects.  For  the  master  of  force  held  in 
his  hands  the  key  of  their  civilisation  and  progress. 
To  the  elders  all  private  ends  and  honcfurs  seemed 
trivial  beside  the  aim  of  the  race,  the  only  divine  thing, 
they  thought,  that  they  held  in  their  hearts.  To  have 
been  able  to  substitute  anything  on  earth  for  it  even  for 


Polity  527 

a  moment  was  to  them  so  absurd  and  insane  as  to  ap- 
pear impossible  for  any  Limanoran.  All  this  safe 
guarding  of  the  probity  and  the  sanity  of  the  masters 
of  force  was  therefore  counted  rather  as  a  tribute  to 
the  importance  of  the  office  than  a  slur  upon  the  indi- 
vidual. 

It  was  not  that  private  motive  or  stimulus  had  been 
annihilated.     On  the  contrary  they  considered  that  the 
chief  spur  to   progress  was  the  struggle  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  competition  with  his  fellows.     He  who  could 
attain  most  rapidly  to  the  ideal  set  immediately  before 
the  race  was  a  marked  and  striking  personality.     To 
level  all  means  of  advance  so  as  to  make  them  the  same 
lor  all  was  to  destroy  this  stimulus  to  development 
To  be  respected  and  at  last  reverenced  by  his  neighbours 
was  longed  for  by  every  man  in  the  community   and 
everyone  had  his  own  special  faculty  and  mean's  for 
gaming  such  respect  and  reverence.     At  the  o-reat  pur 
gation   of  the  island's  socialists  and   thieves    private 
property  had  not  been  abolished,  but  only  disgraded 
The   socialists    had    been    willing   to   erase   all   other 
methods  of  civilisation  and  progress  for  the  sake  of  the 
impossible  dream,   the  equalisation  of  property   the 
thieves  had  been  willing  to  do  the  same  for  the  sake  of 
the  swift  acquisition  of  their  share  of  it.     They  kept  up 
an  abnormal  and  morbid  appetite  for  property  which 
raised  it  completely  out  of  scale  and  proportion,  com- 
pared with  the  other  symbols  of  power  and  means  of 
advance.     It   became   a  disease   that   perverted  their 
whole  view  of  life,  and  nothing  wholesome  could  be 
done  till  they   were  expelled.     After  their  expulsion 
it  was  found  that  property  lost  its   importance,   and 
the  word  "fortune"  ceased  to  be  identified  with  its 


528  Limanora 

acquisition.  It  fell  to  its  natural  and  true  position  in 
the  scale  of  means  of  development. 

The  motive  that  the  socialists  had  most  prominently 
put  forward  for  their  schemes,  the  benefit  of  tbeir  pov- 
erty-stricken and  starving  brethren,  had  long  become 
too  artificial  to  hoodwink  the  wiser  patriots.  Not  since 
the  barbarous  stage  of  their  past  had  bare  subsistence 
been  a  struggle  and  aim  in  the  race.  They  had  become 
too  provident  to  allow  population  to  outrun  means  or 
demand.  There  never  had  been  for  centuries  anyone 
who  needed  his  neighbour  or  the  state  to  aid  him  with 
food  or  clothing  or  other  of  the  vital  necessaries.  If 
there  had,  he  would  have  been  too  deeply  ashamed  of 
his  mismanagement  of  his  life,  or  his  improvidence,  to 
allow  anyone  to  know  of  it.  The  arrangements  of  the 
state  and  the  carefully  proportioned  size  of  the  popu- 
lation left  no  room  for  him  to  throw  the  blame  on 
others.  The  body  of  the  people  laughed  at  the  social- 
ists for  the  patent  absurdity  of  their  pretext,  and  helped 
the  wise  leaders  to  drive  them  out.  Even  if  this  motive 
had  been  the  real  one,  to  disorganise  the  whole  political 
and  social  system,  and  to  throw  overboard  the  aim  of 
the  race  for  the  sake  of  securing  a  beggarly  pittance  for 
feebler  folk  who  ought  not  to  have  been  brought  into 
the  world,  and  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  perpetuate 
their  kind,  was  a  monstrous  waste  of  vital  power. 
There  had  become  deeply  implanted  in  them  a  racial 
instinct  that  no  step  should  ever  be  taken  which  could 
in  any  way  weaken  or  endanger  the  sense  of  individual 
responsibility.  They  knew  that  no  amount  of  self- 
sacrifice,  no  kind  of  guaranty  of  certain  subsistence  on 
the  part  of  the  workers  in  the  state,  would  ever  make 
true  and  good  citizens  of  those  who  had  lost  this. 

Even  when  they  had  come  to  have  a  far  more  com- 


Polity  529 

prehensive  and  scientific  command  of  the  problem  of 
population,  and  when  the  communising  of  property 
would  have  led  to  no  evil  results,  they  refused  to  think 
of  such  a  measure.  Every  man  was  allowed  to  ac- 
cumulate as  much  wealth  as  he  desired.  But  none  had 
now  the  ambition  to  accumulate  it.  And  as  soon  as 
communication  with  the  neighbouring  islands  was  cut 
off,  commerce  ceased,  and  with  it  all  opportunity  for 
growing  opulent.  Everyone  had  enough  for  his  needs, 
and  these  were  great  in  a  country  so  rich  in  resources 
and  devices  and  so  rapid  in  its  development.  The 
family  safeguarded  the  solvency  of  ever}'  member  of  it, 
as  it  guaranteed  his  capacity  to  do  competent  work  for 
the  state  and  for  himself.  The  state  demanded  nothing 
that  could  be  called  taxation  from  the  citizens;  part  of 
their  time,  ability,  and  work  was  all  that  it  required. 
But  it  was  one  of  the  methods  of  showing  patriotism  to 
give  freely  to  the  state. 

It  was  indeed  one  of  the  chief  reasons  for  the  reten- 
tion of  private  property  that  it  allowed  of  an  easy  and 
ever  available  means  of  cultivating  benevolence.  Per- 
sonal work  was  a  limited  thing,  and  could  be  given  in 
aid  of  others  only  at  fixed  places  and  times  and  in 
defined  quantities.  But  if  it  could  be  concentrated 
in  private  possessions,  then  there  was  ready  at  all  times 
and  places  and  in  any  quantity  the  power  of  helping 
others.  Without  it  generosity  and  self-sacrifice  would 
have  to  mourn  their  petty  limitations.  With  it  be- 
nignity was  ever  in  exercise,  and  remained  an  active 
and  vital  habit  in  the  community.  If  the  state  pos- 
sessed all  and  demanded  all,  then  the  citizens  were 
little  better  than  slaves;  their  virtues  had  no  freedom, 
no  exercise,  and  were  bound  to  disappear.  To  get  as 
much  as  they  could,  to  sate  their  appetites  as  fully  as 


530  Limanora 

they  could,  was  the  only  competition  amongst  neigh- 
bours in  such  a  condition  of  affairs.  The  blessedness 
of  giving  help  spontaneously  would  never  be  experi- 
enced and  would  vanish  from  the  community,  and  in 
its  train  sympathy,  beneficence,  humanity. 

The  competition  in  L,irnanora  was  in  giving,  not  in 
getting,  though  getting  was  one  of  the  conditions  and 
bases  of  giving.  It  is  true  that  the  advance  of  the  race 
had  almost  superseded  this  palpable  method  of  reveal- 
ing the  bounty  of  the  spirit.  In  former  ages,  when 
hypocrisy  was  still  possible,  and  language  and  smiles 
were  too  cheap  and  ready  a  treasury  to  be  wholly 
trusted  as  evidence  of  kindly  intent,  private  property 
enabled  a  man  to  give  a  trustworthy  guaranty  of  his 
generosity;  the  only  other  things  he  could  sacrifice, 
work,  liberty,  life,  were  too  personal  and  too  limited 
in  opportunity  to  be  symbols  of  a  bounteous  heart. 
Now  men  and  women  needed  no  outer  symbol  to  inter- 
pret and  pledge  their  thoughts  and  feelings.  Everyone 
knew  the  soul  of  his  neighbour  as  he  knew  his  own, 
and  hypocrisy  was  a  lost  art,  having  been  long  ago 
stripped  of  its  motive. 

This  singular  people  retained  the  institution  of  priv- 
ate property,  fearing  the  apathy  and  languor  that  fall 
upon  the  energies  of  a  socialistic  people.  They  had 
far  higher  stimuli  to  competitive  vigour  in  the  devotion 
to  progress  and  to  the  aim  of  the  race,  but  they  were  not 
so  foolish  as  to  abandon  the  more  material  stimuli. 
Everything  that  would  contribute  to  progress  they  re- 
tained, everything  that  would  tend  to  quicken  the  pace. 
Nor  were  they  yet  so  far  away  from  the  more  animal 
stage  of  their  civilisation  as  to  be  wholly  rid  of  the  fear 
of  its  return.  Should  it  return,  the  other  motives,  even 
that  of  patriotism,  would  be  so  shadowy  as  to  be  im- 


Polity  53i 

potent  against  the  deluge  of  appetite  and  indolence  if 
the  material  competitive  principle,  the  system  of  private 
property,  had  been  abolished.  To  avoid  the  risk  of 
such  a  doom  as  had  fallen  on  Tirralaria,  they  refused 
to  communise  possessions.  And  a  certain  sweetness  of 
imagination,  of  memory,  and  of  harmless  romance  had 
hallowed  the  system  in  their  minds;  without  it  they 
would  have  felt  a  distinct  depreciation  of  life  that  would 
not  have  found  compensation  in  any  advantage  its 
abolition  might  have  brought. 

The  evils  that  seemed  to  attach  to  the  system  in 
other  times  and  nations  attached  to  all  other  symbols 
of  power  as  well:  birth,  position,  influence,  reputation, 
character,  talent,  opportunity,  luck.  All  that  tended 
to  differentiate  one  man  from  another  and  raise  him  in 
the  scale  of  the  use  of  power  was  open  to  the  same 
charge  as  the  institution  of  "private  property.  But 
early  in  their  reforming  career  the  Limanorans  had 
discovered  that  the  evils  that  seemed  to  attach  to  these 
features  of  human  life  were  not  inherent  in  them;  they 
arose  from  the  passions  of  envy  and  jealousy.  As  long 
as  these  had  possession  of  men's  hearts,  the  levelling 
process  could  never  be  final. 

Communities  that  made  the  attempt  to  plane  down 
human  society  to  a  common  level,  and  to  equalise  all 
symbols  and  opportunities  of  power  had  an  infinite 
task  before  them.  They  really  began  at  the  wrong  end 
and  struck  at  the  accidental  consequences  of  what  they 
thought  an  evil,  instead  of  getting  to  the  root  and 
source.  The  L,inianorans  had  wisely  set  themselves  to 
bleach  their  natures  of  envy  and  jealousy;  and  once 
this  was  accomplished  they  found  that  inequalities 
amongst  them  were,  instead  of  being  an  evil, the  greatest 
good,  the  keenest  stimulus  of  progress.     They  smiled 


532  Limanora 

at  the  farce  that  went  on  in  Tirralaria,  a  farce  that  at 
intervals  culminated  in  tragedy.  They  saw  the  inher- 
ent futility  of  all  efforts  to  do  away  with  the  occasions 
of  envy  and  jealousy,  instead  of  eradicating  the  passions 
themselves.  They  compared  socialistic  and  equalising 
schemes  to  bailing  out  the  ocean  with  a  sieve. 

The  disadvantages  and  abuses  of  private  property 
and  of  all  inequality  in  the  symbols  of  power  vanish 
with  the  opportunity  and  the  desire  to  flaunt  them  in 
the  faces  of  neighbours  and  rivals,  to  use  them  as  ap- 
peals to  envy  and  jealousy.  As  a  rule  it  is  in  small 
communities  and  circles  and  narrow  localities,  where 
every  man  in  almost  every  movement  kicks  up  against 
some  neighbour,  that  envy  and  jealousy  reach  their 
most  virulent  development  and  acquire  the  greatest  re- 
finement in  the  use  of  their  weapons.  But  that  is  in 
small  communities  that  form  parts  of  wider  arenas  of 
ambition,  and  so  learn  arrogance  and  scorn  of  their 
surroundings.  Where  a  limited  society  lives,  isolated 
from  alien  and  ambitious  neighbours,  a  simple  and  un- 
ambitious life,  it  is  generally  found  to  be  almost  free 
from  the  meaner  emotions,  envy,  jealousy,  and  their 
counterparts,  disdain,  pride,  and  insolence.  Amongst 
them  there  is  little  need  of  coercion  or  law  or  govern- 
ment; the  more  primitive  virtues  of  honesty,  truth, 
loyalty,  courage,  come  to  them  by  nature;  the  family 
eradicates  or  conceals  all  symptoms  of  lapse  from  them, 
all  rebellion  against  the  interests  of  all.  The  great 
drawback  to  such  commonweals  is  that  they  are  not 
progressive;  they  remain  centuries  in  one  stage  of 
civilisation,  and  seem  to  travellers  from  larger  and 
advancing  nations  mere  savages  buried  in  filth,  and 
enslaved  to  the  despotism  of  the  seasons.  But  this 
people    considered   such  superficially    embruted   com- 


Polity  533 

munities  nearer  to  ultimate  salvation  than  the  highly 
refined  nations  that  exhibit  a  medley  of  wealth  and 
starvation,  militarism  and  religion.  The  maximum  of 
government,  they  held,  implied  the  minimum  of  pro- 
gress; for  the  essentials  of  spiritual  advance  are  ignored 
by  external  administration. 

A  long  experience  of  all  types  of  body  politic,  and  a 
minute  knowledge  and  study  of  the  history  of  the 
world,  had  made  this  people  antagonistic  to  every  form 
of  great  empire.  In  their  own  far  past  they  had  known 
the  ambition  to  incorporate  other  peoples,  and  extend 
the  bounds  of  their  dominion  over  the  world.  But 
that  was  in  periods  that  were  stagnant  or  retrogressive 
in  the  essentials  of  a  noble  civilisation.  Great  empires 
are  able  to  concentrate  vast  resources;  but  they  spend 
them  all  on  pomp,  administration,  and  war.  Wherever 
the  world  is  parcelled  out  into  huge  nations,  there  is 
no  chance  of  freeing  them  from  the  slavery  of  omnivor- 
ous armaments.  Each  is  a  threat  to  the  freedom  of  the 
others,  and  none  dares  disarm,  or  spend  her  wealth  on 
the  arts  of  peace,  lest  the  others  should  take  advantage 
of  her  unwarlike  attitude.  The  only  progress  continues 
to  be  in  the  size  and  the  equipment  of  the  armies,  and 
in  the  ingenuity  of  the  instruments  of  destruction. 
And,  should  two  or  three  absorb  the  others,  the  mili- 
tary vigilance  has  to  be  all  the  greater.  Even  if  the 
impossible  should  occur,  and  one  great  empire  should 
absorb  the  world,  the  internal  militarism  would  be 
nonetheless;  half  of  mankind  would  have  to  be  em- 
ployed in  keeping  the  other  half  from  rebellion  against 
the  central  power.  Huge  empires,  instead  of  being 
guaranties  of  peace,  are  direct  incentives  to  war,  or  at 
least  to  a  permanent  warlike  attitude. 


534  Limanora 

What  has  most  obstructed  human  progress  on  its 
civilised  levels  is  an  inevitable  tendency  at  a  certain 
stage  to  mass  into  large  aggregates;  that  is,  when  there 
has  been  considerable  accumulation  of  wealth  or  an  ex- 
ceptional development  of  commerce,  and  protection  is 
needed  by  the  wealthy  or  the  merchants.  Then  the 
military  element  gains  the  mastery  of  all  natural  power, 
and  whilst  there  occurs  a  rapid  evolution  of  all  forms  of 
aggression  and  defence  and  of  all  the  virtues  connected 
with  them,  there  is  real  retrogression;  the  spirit  dwin- 
dles as  the  outer  integuments  bloom.  Militarism 
only  perpetuates  itself  and  protects  nothing  but  its  own 
ambitions.  It  is  in  its  last  analysis  a  subtle  fusion  of 
histrionicism  and  savagery;  it  attracts  the  same  tastes 
as  the  prize-iiug  and  the  theatre.  Everything  that 
encourages  it  or  develops  it  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
true  advance  of  the  human  race. 

There  is,  they  held,  no  hope  for  mankind  in  general, 
unless  this  stage  of  imperial  ambitions  and  aggrega- 
tions can  be  overleaped.  Back  must  the  world  recede 
from  vast  empires  if  it  would  attain  to  any  nobleness 
of  aim,  or  any  development  of  the  higher  elements  in 
man.  Its  sole  salvation  lies  in  small  communities 
covering  its  surface  and  remaining  free  from  the  taint 
of  imperial  effort  and  militarism.  Only  when  the 
nation  has  complete  command  of  the  numbers  within  it 
through  the  family,  that  is,  when  the  nation  is  small, 
will  patriotism  become  commensurate  with  humanity, 
and  the  true  goal  of  the  human  race  be  the  aim  of  the 
individual. 

The  family  is  the  natural  unit  of  administration  in  a 
community;  and,  as  long  as  the  heads  form  the  com- 
mon council  that  watches  the  interests  and  aim  of  all, 
it  can  never  come  into  conflict  with  national  unity  and 


Polity 


535 


progress.  The  house  and  its  goods  belonged  to  the 
household  in  Limanora;  and,  although  the  members 
of  it  had  equal  rights  to  the  livelihood  that  was  counted 
fullest  and  best  by  the  community,  the  individual,  if 
mature,  had  freedom  of  action  that  would  surprise  a 
Western  freeman;  he  was  the  equal  of  all  members  of 
the  state;  within  the  aim  of  the  race  and  the  path  of  its 
progress  he  had  complete  personal  initiative;  his  de- 
stiny, it  is  true,  had  been  shaped  for  him  during  his 
pupillage,  but  the  fulfilment  of  it  was  his  own;  his 
aims  and  desires  had  been  implanted  and  developed 
and  pruned  whilst  he  was  passing  through  childhood 
and  youth,  so  that  he  would  not  in  full  manhood 
spontaneously  change  them,  but  when  he  became  an 
independent  citizen  his  methods  of  fulfilling  these  were 
all  his  own.  He  had  to  contribute  to  the  family  treas- 
ury what  was  needed  to  keep  it  level  with  Limanoran 
affluence,  and  he  was  generally  eager  to  give  more;  but 
all  the  rest  was  at  his  own  disposal.  The  family  had 
many  buildings  in  common;  but  each  full-grown  mem- 
ber, whether  male  or  female,  had  a  separate  house  to 
retire  to.  Originality  in  the  family,  one  of  the  chief 
methods  in  the  race  for  encouraging  progress,  could 
never  be  attained  without  cultivating  originality  in  the 
individual.  It  had  a  track  laid  out  for  it  through  the 
future,  carefully  related  to  the  march  of  the  nation ;  but 
it  might  adopt  what  means  it  liked  to  make  that  track 
sure,  and  it  might  explore  on  all  sides  of  it  for  new 
ideas  and  methods  and  resources.  It  was  the  same 
with  the  individual  within  it;  he  was  encouraged  to 
find  his  own  means,  and  to  use  his  imagination  and  his 
other  faculties  fully  and  independently,  provided  he 
kept  his  eye  on  the  goal  of  the  family,  which  was  in- 
volved in  the  goal  of  the  race. 


536  Limanora 

All  the  families  were  equal  in  their  relations  to  the 
state,  whatever  their  occupation  or  wealth  or  origin 
might  be.  This  prevented  the  family  from  passing  into 
the  rigidity  of  the  caste.  All  work  was  alike  honoured, 
and  personal  worth  was  the  test  of  the  man  and  of  the 
respect  paid  him,  irrespective  of  external  symbols  and 
representatives  of  power.  And  to  prevent  the  super- 
session of  this  by  any  other  principle,  all  the  physical 
forms  of  toil  that  might  at  one  time  or  other  be  con- 
sidered offensive,  were  gathered  into  the  hands  of  the 
state,  and  all  men  and  women  had  to  take  their  share 
of  them.  They  were  the  duties  connected  with  the 
various  public  institutions,  and  especially  with  the 
centre  of  force.  It  was  recognised  as  a  good  thing  that 
every  man  and  woman  should  have  physical  exercise 
every  day  in  order  to  keep  the  basis  of  the  spirit  in  the 
best  possible  condition,  by  working  off  the  debris  of 
the  various  organs  and  functions  of  the  system.  This 
fitted  in  with  the  principle  that  all  force  should  concen- 
trate in  the  hands  of  the  government.  The  most  severe 
physical  toil  was  certain  to  be  that  which  collected, 
divided,  and  adapted  the  vast  accumulation  of  energy 
in  Rimla.  The  duties  in  the  centre  of  force  were  there- 
fore portioned  out  day  by  day  and  week  by  week ;  and 
every  man  and  woman  of  the  community  had  to  spend 
a  certain  portion  of  time  each  day  in  this  vast  forge  of 
energy.  But  the  lighter  work  was  given  to  the  less 
muscular,  and  the  youthful  had  to  bear  the  chief  bur- 
den; whilst  the  older,  as  their  share,  were  occupied 
chiefly  in  superintending  it.  Besides  this,  every  citizen 
had  to  take  daily  part  in  the  work  of  some  one  of  the 
public  institutions  that  were  not  assigned  to  special 
families,  or  in  the  mechanical  and  unskilled  toil  of  one 
of  those  that  were  under  the  care  of  special  families. 


Polity  537 

Thus  two  or  three  hours  of  every  citizen's  twenty-four 
were  impounded  by  the  state,  much  to  his  bodily  and 
spiritual  advantage. 

The  only  contribution  in  money  or  kind  that  the 
state  made  compulsory  was  that  which  each  family 
exchequer  gave  for  the  support  of  the  medical,  archi- 
tectural, and  other  public  professional  families.  No 
valid  system  could  have  estimated  the  value  of  their 
services  either  to  the  state  or  to  the  individual;  and  it 
was  considered  impracticable  to  valuate  the  benefits 
received  by  each  family  from  their  work.  An  amount 
was  fixed,  which  each  had  to  contribute  to  every  family 
that  had  the  care  of  a  public  institution,  or  the  per- 
formance of  a  public  duty.  But  over  and  above  this 
amount  the  voluntary  gifts  to  them  were  very  large. 
The  result  was  that  the  treasuries  of  public  and  profes- 
sional families  were  oftenest  the  fullest;  and  they  were 
as  ready  and  as  able  to  give  as  any.  If  there  was  any 
rivalry  amongst  the  families  and  individuals  in  Lima- 
nora,  it  was  in  the  delight  of  giving. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  MANORA  AND  THE  IMANORA 


WHAT  would  have  been  considered  taxes  in 
another  state  were  looked  on  by  the  people 
of  this  land  as  voluntary  contributions.  There  had 
been  no  formal  resolution  or  written  law  fixing  neces- 
sary imposts,  but  they  came  rather  from  the  heart  of 
the  people,  and  expressed  themselves  in  what  would 
have  been  called  in  other  nations  public  opinion.  It 
was  opinion  which  needed  no  verbal  communication 
and  might  be  called  rather  the  public  magnetism  of  the 
race,  that  unified  its  customs  and  feelings,  and  made  a 
body  of  written  law  superfluous. 

One  feature  of  their  civilisation  that  puzzled  me  for 
many  years  was  the  seeming  immobility  of  their  public 
relationships.  When  a  man  or  woman  got  into  a  certain 
family  with  its  professional  duties  and  prospects,  there 
was  no  means,  it  seemed  to  me,  of  changing.  Once  in 
a  certain  groove,  a  Limanoran  was  in  it  for  ever.  His 
destiny  was  irrevocable.  It  is  true  that  the  elders  took 
every  precaution  to  choose  his  parents  and  ancestry  for 
such  a  goal,  and  to  mould  his  tissues  and  educate  his 
faculties  to  it.  Yet  some  inspiration  might  reveal  to 
him  a  vista  into  a  future  better  suited  to  his  powers 
than  that  which  had  been  fixed  for  him.     It  is  true 

538 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     539 

that  this  feature  gave  great  stability  and  strength  to 
the  state.  But  a  people  that  believed  so  firmly  in 
liberty,  originality,  and  progress  should  surely  have 
adopted  some  more  plastic  system  for  their  permanent 
relationships,  some  status  less  rigid  and  immutable  for 
the  individual  members.  It  seemed  to  me  more  like 
the  iron  system  of  caste  than  the  flexibility  of  an  ad- 
vancing civilisation. 

As  usual  I  was  mistaken  in  my  criticism.  I  had  not 
looked  deeply  enough,  or  observed  long  enough  to 
know  the  marvellous  fabric  of  their  polity,  a  full  know- 
ledge of  which  meant  an  experience  of  several  centuries. 
The  immutability  was  only  in  appearance  and  not  in 
reality. 

A  few  years  after  I  had  been  admitted  to  some  of  the 
privileges  of  mature  citizenship,  I  began  to  feel  that 
we  were  approaching  an  exceptional  time.  There  was 
evident  a  bustle  of  preparation,  a  rare  quickening  of 
the  pace  of  all  work,  and  an  expectancy  that  pointed 
to  some  unusual  event.  The  flight-exercises  and  the 
leisure-time  were  somewhat  curtailed,  and  as  much 
work  was  put  into  four  weeks  as  was  commonly  put 
into  five.  Before  the  year  was  half  over,  I  began  to 
understand  what  it  meant.  The  word  Manora  occurred 
too  often  on  the  lips  and  in  the  minds  of  my  neighbours 
and  friends  to  escape  my  observation  and  on  inquiry  I 
found  it  meant  the  decennial  review.  Every  ten  years, 
one  quarter  of  the  year  was  devoted  to  a  census  of  the 
civilisation  of  the  period. 

With  all  the  other  newly  matured  citizens,  I  had  to 
be  instructed  in  the  part  I  was  to  take  in  this  census. 
Each  day  for  months  I  had  to  devote  some  hours  to 
tracing  out  the  progress  I  had  made  both  in  character 
and  in  works,  and  in  putting  it  into  graphic  and  easily 


54°  Limanora 

observed  form.  I  was  taught  to  draw  up  comparative 
statistics  of  the  stages  I  had  passed  through  from  year 
to  year  for  the  decennial  period,  though  they  considered 
this  a  poor  and  misleading  mode  of  reviewing  the  past. 
It  was  the  mere  skeleton  of  the  census. 

I  was  supplied  from  the  valley  of  memory  with 
irelium-strips,  whereon  had  been  recorded  automatic- 
ally without  my  knowledge  my  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  words  in  the  various  important  scenes  in  which  I 
had  taken  part.  How  surprised  was  I  often  to  observe 
the  mistakes  my  memory  had  fallen  into!  As  a  witness 
of  some  act  I  had  seen,  or  some  discussion  I  had  heard, 
I  would  have  sworn  confidently  to  the  opposite  of  the 
truth.  As  to  my  own  deeds  and  words  and  even 
thoughts  and  feelings,  I  was  ashamed  to  see  how  com- 
pletely my  subsequent  life  had  distorted  the  record  of 
them;  the  likeness  was  often  unrecognisable.  And  I 
knew  well  which  was  wrong;  for  the  machine-reporters 
were  infallible  as  far  as  their  report  went.  After  my 
perusal  of  these  automatic  records  of  my  life  I  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  common  history  must  be  a  tissue  of 
fiction  and  error  wherever  it  has  had  to  depend  on  the 
senses  and  memory  of  men  for  its  details.  I  grew  less 
and  less  inclined  to  add  anything  from  memory  to  my 
decennial  biography,  which  I  drew  from  these  machine- 
reports.  It  was  as  refreshing  to  study  them  as  if  I  had 
been  examining  pictures  and  memorials  of  another's 
life.  By  the  time  I' had  done  with  them,  I  seemed  to 
know  something  real  of  my  past;  and  side  by  side  I 
was  able  to  place  my  review  of  what  I  had  become,  and 
the  account  of  my  various  .stages  of  growth  during  this 
period,  with  the  definiteness  and  accuracy  of  one  who 
was  analysing  scientifically  half  a  dozen  different  evo- 
lutionary specimens  of  a  species.     My  personality  stood 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     54 l 

out  at  each  different  point  of  its  growth  as  clearly  as  if 
it  had  been  that  of  another  man  laid  under  the  micro- 
scope and  in  these  records  I  lived  my  life  over  again. 

But  I  was  still  further  aided  in  these  researches  into 
my  development  by  the  accounts  of  the  weekly  inspec- 
tion of  my  tissues  and  faculties  kept  by  the  medical  fam- 
ilies. These  were  not  merely  statistical  and  verbal,  but 
pictorial.  The  appearance  and  electric  state  of  every 
part  of  my  system  had  been  made  to  impress  them- 
selves indelibly  in  picture-records;  and  these  were 
now  submitted  to  me  for  comparison.  From  the  dif- 
ferent records  set  side  by  side  with  the  electrographs 
and  radiographs  of  all  my  animal  economy,  1  was 
taught  how  to  produce  an  evolutionary  picture  of  my 
faculties  and  organs  and  tissues. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  striking  advances  in  their 
art.  The)'  could  combine  the  pictorial  representations 
of  various  stages  in  the  life  of  a  growing  being  in  such 
a  way  that,  when  placed  in  one  of  their  lightning-swift 
representers,  the  growth  would  flash  before  one's  senses 
as  a  continuity.  A  child  would  grow  as  by  magic  into 
a  matured  man  or  woman  as  we  gazed.  A  seed  would 
grow  into  a  great  tree  in  the  space  of  a  few  minutes. 
The  brain  or  heart  or  lungs  of  a  Limanoran  would  pass 
like  a  flash  through  the  stages  of  development  that  had 
taken  generations  to  achieve.  For  spectacular  study 
of  the  history  of  any  living  thing  nothing  could  surpass 
the  imataran,  or  focusser  of  history,  as  the  new  instru- 
ment was  called. 

From  the  archives  of  the  medical  family  I  was  able 
to  make  such  a  series  of  pictures  of  my  whole  constitu- 
tion and  system  as  revealed  the  growth  of  every  faculty 
and  organ  and  tissue.  The  rapidity  of  my  develop- 
ment  astounded   me  as   I   looked  over  these  graphic 


542  Limanora 

records  of  my  past.  It  was  like  a  full-grown  man 
inspecting  the  photographs  and  annals  of  his  infancy 
and  childhood.  I  could  not  have  believed  the  story  of 
it,  had  it  not  been  engraved  so  indubitably  on  these 
irelium-strips  by  the  machine- reporters.  My  own 
memory  had  become  so  foreshortened  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  my  present,  and  by  the  disproportionate  im- 
portance of  recent  events  and  conditions  that  I  could 
have  no  more  implicit  trust  in  its  representations  of 
the  past.  But,  when  I  placed  the  various  series  of 
evolutionary  pictures  in  the  imataran,  the  effect  was  so 
magical  that  I  was  half-inclined  to  believe  in  preference 
my  backward-looking  faculty  again.  In  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye  the  transparent  reflection  of  myself  had  grown 
its  ten  years'  growth,  and  I  had  developed  out  of  an 
alien  into  something  not  unlike  a  Limanoran. 

All  that  I  had  done  in  the  period,  or  rather  all  that 
I  had  done  productively,  I  had  similarly  to  picturise  in 
series,  so  that  every  feature  that  had  been  in  any  way 
developed  might  reveal  itself,  and  everything  that 
showed  stagnation  or  retrogression  might  be  observed 
without  trouble. 

My  proparents  and  the  elders  of  the  family  superin- 
tended and  tested  my  review  of  my  past,  and  taught 
me  to  be  unbending  in  criticism  of  myself.  No  feature 
that  seemed  to  count  against  my  advance  was  I  to 
shrink  from  representing  in  all  its  nakedness,  nor  was  I 
through  false  modesty  to  depreciate  whatsoever  stood 
to  my  credit.  I  scarcely  needed  the  precautions;  for  I 
had  learned  during  my  sojourn  amongst  this  rigidly 
sincere  and  ingenuous  people  to  respect  the  naked 
truth  above  all  things.  Indeed  I  had  come  to  feel  that 
it  was  useless  to  act  otherwise  than  as  if  my  whole 
system  were  open  to  the  gaze  of  my  neighbours. 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     543 

Ever}'  mature  member  of  the  community  had  this 
drastic  valuation  of  his  work  and  strict  criticism  of 
himself  to  make  and  all  were  occupied  for  three  months 
in  reducing  the  annals  of  their  past  ten  years  to  focus. 
For  the  young  and  those  still  under  tutelage  the 
proparents  and  guardians  were  responsible,  and  they 
picturised  for  the  imataran  the  decennial  life  of  their 
pupils  as  well  as  of  themselves. 

But  over  and  above  this  personal  work,  the  elders 
had  to  review  the  growth  of  the  families,  institutions, 
sciences,  and  arts  of  which  they  had  the  guidance. 
This  they  kuew  well  how  to  do  from  long  practice,  and 
had  carefully  prepared  the  records  of  each  separate  year 
of  the  decennium,  and  the  pictures  of  the  new  features 
and  new  growths  in  the  departments  they  superin- 
tended. During  these  three  months  all  they  had  to  do 
was  to  focus  the  growth  of  the  years  and  arrange  the 
various  records  in  series  in  such  a  way  as  to  reveal  the 
development. 

When  all  was  read)-,  each  family  gathered  in  its 
public  spectacular  hall  aud  viewed  the  growth  of  every 
member  of  it  in  the  shadows  thrown  by  the  imataran. 
I  thought  at  first  that  the  effect  would  be  too  mono- 
tonous to  be  interesting.  But,  as  the  spectacle  of  the 
Leomo  proceeded,  it  proved  to  be  a  marvellous  revela- 
tion of  the  vast  variety  of  types  in  one  family,  and  of 
the  amount  of  growth  that  had  gone  on  in  the  tissues 
and  faculties  of  every  member  in  different  directions. 

The  growth  of  the  family  as  a  whole  was  taken  first, 
— its  power  of  coping  with  new  problems  and  of  suggest- 
ing difficulties  to  come,  its  additions  to  the  treasury  of 
force  and  to  the  civilisation  of  the  race,  its  attitude 
toward  the  aim  of  the  nation,  its  pace  on  the  forward 
march,  its  comprehension  of  the  Limanoran  ethics  and 


544  Limanora 

of  the  general  problems  of  the  race,  its  command  over 
its  individual  members,  and  its  relationships  to  the 
other  families  and  to  the  state  as  a  whole.  The  decen- 
nial development  of  the  L,eomo  was  graphically  focussed 
in  pictures  that  told  their  story  in  a  flash  even  to  the 
least  mature. 

Massed  thus,  the  advance  was  felt  by  all  to  be  sur- 
prising, for  each  had  been  watching  throughout  the 
decennium  his  own  special  work  or  set  of  faculties,  and 
had  been  unable  to  abstract  himself  sufficiently  from 
his  own  sphere  to  gain  a  just  view  of  the  whole  family 
progress.  As  we  saw  the  science  and  the  art  develop 
before  our  eyes,  the  moment's  glance  intensified  the 
ten  years'  work  into  a  marvel.  From  a  hundred  dif- 
ferent points  of  view  we  watched  the  advance  of  the 
L,eomo,  and  we  felt  proud  that  we  belonged  to  such  a 
family;  we  knew  that  taken  as  a  whole  it  had  not  been 
wanting  in  its  duty  to  the  race  and  the  aim  of  the  race. 
A  magnetic  thrill  went  through  us,  especially  when 
there  unrolled  before  us  the  living  picture  of  the  pre- 
ceding decennium;  the  contrast  between  the  two  in 
pace  of  development  was  striking.  Here  and  there  of 
course  we  recognised  flaws  in  the  work  accomplished 
during  our  recent  period,  when  seen  against  the  design 
of  the  whole.  But  we  gathered  from  the  spectacle  fresh 
hope  and  energy  for  the  future,  and  renewed  determ- 
ination to  increase  the  pace  still  more  during  the  next 
period. 

We  shrank  a  little  perhaps  from  the  next  stage  of 
the  spectacle,  for  it  meant  the  decennial  confession  of 
every  one  of  us  all.  The  famity  as  a  whole  acted  the 
priest,  and  before  it  we  each  laid  the  story  of  our  fail- 
ures and  successes,  our  deeds  of  virtue  and  our  sins. 
The  ordeal  was  less  trying  than  I  had  anticipated,  for 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     545 

the  critic  was  lenient  and  sympathetic.  If  the  lapse 
was  slight,  the  source  of  it  was  tenderly  pointed  out  by 
the  elders  and  the  remedy  indicated;  and  the  stronger 
members  formed  resolves  to  lend  their  strength  to  the 
lapser  to  master  his  weakness;  everything  that  was 
possible,  he  felt  sure,  would  be  done  to  help  the  lag- 
gard faculty  or  tissue  to  recoup  its  powers  and  bring 
itself  even  with  the  march  of  the  family.  If  the  lapse 
was  great,  the  case  was  sympathetically  placed  before 
the  council  of  elders,  which  investigated  the  question 
whether  it  was  due  to  their  mistaken  choice  of  a  career 
for  the  youth  (it  was  generally  a  youth  that  failed 
strikingly),  or  whether  it  had  come  from  some  changed 
facult)7  or  tissue  in  him;  if  it  were  the  former,  he  was 
aided  in  deciding  what  change  in  his  career  would 
be  best  for  him;  if  the  latter,  he  was  dealt  with  as  an 
invalid,  and  in  the  hospital  for  spiritual  diseases  the 
curative  powers  of  the  nation  were  applied  to  his  case. 
Sometimes  his  disease  originated  in  atavism,  and  then 
the  most  drastic  remedies,  both  physical  and  spiritual, 
were  brought  to  bear;  sometimes  it  was  found  to  come 
from  a  new  microscopic  parasite  that  had  floated  from 
some  far  atmosphere  into  the  Limanoran  arena;  and 
then  all  the  wisdom  and  science  of  the  race  had  to  be 
brought  into  requisition  to  investigate  the  conditions 
of  the  new  foe  and  the  possible  means  of  driving  it  out. 
This  indeed  was  the  time  for  anyone  who  had  made 
a  mistake  to  retrace  his  steps.  Here  it  was  that  the 
seeming  rigidity  of  the  system  was  tempered  and  ren- 
dered flexible  and  plastic  as  nature  herself.  Ten  years 
was  but  a  point  in  the  continuity  of  the  force  in  a  man, 
in  the  great  expansion  of  Limanoran  life.  But  it  was 
enough  to  make  sure  that  a  mistake  in  the  choice  of  a 

career  was  real,   not  merely  apparent,   and  that  the 

35 


546  Limanora 

longing  for  another  was  not  a  mere  caprice.  A  shorter 
period  would  not  have  been  test  enough ;  and  the  re- 
view of  all  careers  prevented  undue  proportion  being 
given  to  any  individual  failure  or  mistake.  It  was  not 
infrequent  for  youths  who  thought  that  they  had  mis- 
taken their  career,  to  change  their  minds  at  the  Manora, 
and  acknowledge  that,  all  things  considered,  the  wisest 
course  had  been  chosen  for  them;  they  came  to  see  that 
their  work  was  not  so  defective  as  they  had  imagined, 
and  that  they  had  contributed  their  due  quota  to  the 
advance  of  the  family  and  the  race;  against  the  back- 
ground of  the  whole  science  or  art  in  which  they  toiled, 
they  recovered  tone  and  hope,  and  the  pride  they  felt 
in  the  progress  of  all  stirred  them  to  new  exertions  in 
their  own  special  work.  It  was  as  much  the  aim  of  the 
elders  in  these  Manoras  to  give  new  enthusiasm  in  the 
careers  that  had  been  chosen  as  to  revise  the  scheme 
of  careers.  The  primary  aim  was  to  remove  the  sense 
of  bondage  that  might  grow  up  in  the  breasts  of  any 
from  the  feeling  of  inevitableness  and  unchangeableness 
in  the  development  of  their  lives.  It  was  rare  indeed 
that  a  real  failure  ever  occurred.  But  none  the  less  a 
sense  of  failure  might  seize  upon  a  timid  or  self-depre- 
ciative  mind,  and  then  the  knowledge  that  there  could 
be  no  turning  back  would  send  it  rankling  home  into 
the  soul.  Circumscription  to  a  course,  if  irrevocable, 
is  none  the  less  incarceration  that  it  is  a  course  selected 
by  ourselves.  A  Limanoran  never  felt  enslaved  to  his 
career.  He  knew  he  had  made  his  choice,  and  that  he 
might  make  it  again  if  he  showed  sufficient  reason. 
The  result  of  this  atmosphere  of  complete  freedom  was 
that  not  once  in  a  generation  was  any  career,  once 
deliberately  selected,  changed.  The  elders  were  fully 
justified  in  the  elaborate  choice  of  ancestry  and  parents, 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     547 

and  in  the  still  more  elaborate  pains  taken  in  the  choice 
of  surroundings  and  in  training.  Misgivings  and  hesi- 
tations all  disappeared  in  the  full  light  of  the  decennial 
review. 

It  was  marvellous  how  the  magnetic  sympathy  of  the 
family,  as  the  spectacular  confessional  spread  life  after 
life  before  the  gaze  of  all,  eradicated  timidities,  and 
strengthened  each  member  in  the  path  he  had  chosen. 
Instead  of  having  his  little  defects  emphasised  or  exag- 
gerated, all  the  merits  of  his  work  were  brought  out. 
I  took  new  courage  and  hope,  as  I  felt  the  air  of  im- 
partial esteem  over  the  excellencies  of  each  member's 
development  and  of  sympathetic  sorrow  and  condolence 
over  any  evidence  of  failure  or  retrogression.  Not  a 
sign  was  there  of  censorious  or  captious  criticism.  Nor 
was  there  anything  of  that  barter  of  laudation  and 
panegyric  which  makes  mutual-admiration  societies  so 
unwholesome  in  their  effects.  All  was  subdued,  gentle, 
reasonable,  wise,  and  sympathetic,  and  the  most  health- 
ful and  invigorating  of  all  tonics  to  everyone.  From 
what  I  had  looked  forward  to  as  an  ordeal  I  came  away 
refreshed  and  strong,  determined  to  amend  everything 
that  could  be  deemed  faulty  in  my  life,  and  to  quicken 
my  pace  in  marching  towards  the  goal  of  the  race. 

The  national  review  of  every  family's  progress  was 
somewhat  similar,  except  that  the  larger  arena  and  the 
greater  volume  of  magnetism  in  the  audience  stirred  a 
deeper  thrill  in  the  natures  of  the  individual  members. 
It  was  held  in  Loomiefa,  and  it  took  many  days  to 
view  the  whole  spectacle  of  the  nation's  decennial  work. 
Nothing  have  I  ever  seen  so  varied,  disciplinal,  and 
impressive.  It  was  as  if  ten  thousand  years  of  the 
whole  world's  progress  had  been  focussed  in  this  val- 
ley.    Science  after  science,   art  after  art,  graphically 


548  Limanora 

displayed  all  that  it  had  achieved  during  the  period. 
To  me  it  seemed  a  universal  education;  and  it  strained 
all  my  faculties  to  follow  the  marvellous  array  of  in- 
ventions and  discoveries,  whilst  my  neighbours  and 
comrades  drank  the  whole  spectacle  in  with  an  ease 
that  in  other  circumstances  would  have  made  me  envi- 
ous. It  was  not  the  fault  of  the  masters  and  makers 
of  the  display  that  I  followed  it  with  difficulty,  for  they 
had  made  every  feature  clear  even  to  the  least  mature. 
What  puzzled  me  was  the  logical  sequence  or  interde- 
pendence of  the  various  parts  of  the  spectacle.  Every- 
thing had  been  worked  out  so  as  to  reveal  its  relationship 
to  the  whole  system  and  to  the  aim  of  the  race,  and  to 
comprehend  it  tested  all  my  powers.  I  felt  as  if  I  had 
to  study  a  great  encyclopaedia  in  a  few  days,  or  rather 
its  pictorial  representation  of  every  feature  of  the  most 
advanced  and  intricate  civilisation.  But  even  this 
analogy  is  inadequate,  for  the  phases  of  the  many-sided 
progress  were  not  mechanically  arranged,  but  grew  out 
of  the  central  system  by  a  natural  and  rational  magic. 
The  work  of  every  family  revealed  its  central  principles 
and  their  connection  with  the  advance  of  the  race.  It 
looked  as  if  some  master-mind  had  sat  through  the 
years,  and  watching  the  nation's  work  as  it  was  being 
accomplished,  kept  it  all  in  system.  We  felt  that  there 
was  one  design  in  the  progress  of  the  whole  period, 
and  that  any  feature  that  stood  out  in  independence 
marred  the  symmetry,  and  needed  correction. 

I  remembered  the  waste  of  energy  that  took  place  in 
all  intellectual  spheres  in  Europe,  and  felt  ashamed  of 
the  contrast.  I  could  have  told  this  people  of  the  futile 
skirmishings  and  endless  controversies  of  the  men  of 
science  and  learning,  of  their  duplications  of  each 
other's    work   with   the   consequent   clutchings   after 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     549 

fame,  of  their  assumptions  and  merely  verbal  distinc- 
tions, of  their  thickets  of  abstruse  definitions  and  am- 
biguities, of  their  everlasting  substitutions  of  theory 
for  fact.  I  never  felt  so  conscious  of  the  shortcom- 
ings of  the  civilisation  which  had  nurtured  me  as 
during  the  array  of  Limanoran  decennial  progress  in 
sciences  and  arts. 

After  the  spectacle  was  over,  we  returned  to  our 
usual  employments.  But  I  observed  that  there  were 
now  more  frequent  meetings  of  the  elders  for  several 
months,  and  at  last  we  had  as  the  result  of  their  discus- 
sion of  the  review  and  its  aspects  a  considerable  re- 
arrangement of  our  work,  and  of  our  positions  in  the 
family  and  in  the  state.  Most  proceeded  on  the  path 
they  had  been  taking  during  the  previous  period.  But 
many  found  themselves  now  at  work  more  congenial  to 
their  temperaments  and  destinies,  and  were  able  to  put 
into  it  their  whole  energy  rid  of  the  friction  that  the 
artificial  application  of  will  had  meant.  The  changes 
occurred  almost  naturally  and  spontaneously;  each 
elder  returned  to  his  family  from  the  final  meeting  of 
the  senate  over  the  Manora,  and  it  was  known  without 
effort  or  command  or  waste  of  time  wTho  had  to  modify 
his  position  and  work,  and  how  the  modification  was  to 
be  accomplished. 

The  impetus  given  to  the  civilisation  by  this  loosen- 
ing of  any  bonds  which  had  been  begun  to  be  felt  sent 
it  on  with  exhilaration  and  vigour  for  years.  There 
was  an  air  of  buoyant  freedom  and  alacrity,  even  of 
mirth  amongst  the  younger,  as  they  spent  their  best 
skill  and  capacit3T  upon  the  work  they  had  in  hand. 
The  pace  perceptibly  quickened,  and  at  times  the  nation 
seemed  to  advance  with  the  volume  and  swiftness  of  a 
torrent.     Discover}-  and  invention  became  fuller  as  well 


55°  Limanora 

as  more  minute,  and   the  outlook  began  to  take  in 
regions  of  which  they  had  not  thought  before. 

I  soon  came  to  know  that  there  was  a  more  compre- 
hensive and  far-reaching  evaluation  of  the  resources, 
the  faculty,  and  the  personnel  of  the  race  ahead  of  us. 
Every  tenth  decennium  there  occurred  the  event  of  the 
century,  the  Imanora  or  prospicient  review.  Ten  years 
made  too  short  a  period  to  give  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
the  future  as  contrasted  with  the  past.  Even  a  century 
was  short  enough  for  the  perspective  of  past  and  future 
progress;  but  it  was  considered  wise  to  make  the  period 
fixed  and  of  regular  recurrence,  and  ten  decenniums 
formed  a  space  symmetrical  with  the  shorter  Manora. 
The  Imanora  was  thus  a  centennial  review.  Tenden- 
cies that  might  be  ambiguous  in  their  character  under 
a  decennial  criticism  would  proclaim  themselves  evil  or 
good  in  so  long  a  stretch  as  a  hundred  years.  Facul- 
ties that  would  still  be  but  in  embryo  after  a  course 
of  ten  years  would  be  in  full  maturity  when  a  century 
had  passed.  Young  men  and  women,  who  might  still 
hesitate  within  a  decade  as  to  whether  they  had  chosen 
their  best  career,  would  have  found  by  the  Imanora 
what  was  their  true  bent  beyond  the  possibility  of 
mistake. 

But  it  was  not  meant  merely  as  a  review  of  the  past 
and  a  rearrangement  of  positions,  as  the  Manora  was 
above  all  things.  It  was  rather  a  revision  of  aims  and 
destinies,  a  futuritive  evaluation  of  the  powers  of  the 
race.  Not  merely  the  elders  but  the  whole  people 
were  led  up  to  a  mount  of  vision  whence  they  could 
see  their  future  for  hundreds  of  years  spread  out  before 
them,  bounded  by  the  lines  their  past  had  drawn. 
There  they  could  view  in  picture  the  solutions  of  the 
problems  they  had  been  working  at  and  the  final  out- 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     55 l 

come  of  the  lines  of  development  they  had  been  fol- 
lowing. They  had  to*  decide  there  and  then  how  far 
these  agreed  with  the  ultimate  aim  and  destiny  of 
the  race,  and  how  far  they  had  better  modify  them, 
or  modify  the  general  aim.  Then  they  had  to  choose 
whether  their  path  should  turn  to  the  right  or  left, 
or  should  continue  onwards  as  it  had  continued  for 
a  century.  The  spectacle  of  their  future  spread  out  in 
living  picture  and  symbol  must  have  been  a  deeply  im- 
pressive sight.  Every  family  had  prepared  a  series  of 
tableaux  of  their  possible  destinies  and  the  possible  de- 
velopments of  their  sciences  and  arts,  of  the  problems 
they  would  have  to  solve,  and  of  their  possible  solu- 
tions, and  these  were  passed  in  detail  before  the  whole 
people  for  criticism  and  appreciation.  It  wras  as  if  a 
nation  were  led  to  the  cave  of  some  great  and  true 
prophet,  and  were  shown  all  that  lay  before  it,  whatso- 
ever path  it  should  choose.  The  Ljmanorans  had  be- 
fore them  the  choice  of  a  destiny  for  a  hundred  years. 
It  was  the  care  of  the  elders  that  no  ambiguity  or  dis- 
proportion should  be  admitted  into  the  map  of  the  pos- 
sible routes  that  they  might  take  through  the  future, 
and  that  there  should  be  no  obscurity  in  the  relation- 
ships of  these  to  the  ultimate  goal. 

During  the  last  decade  of  the  century  the  Loomiamo 
and  the  Fraloomiamo  were  the  busiest  of  all  the  families 
in  the  island.  Their  exceptional  development  of  im- 
agination made  them  essential  to  the  preparation  of 
every  map  of  the  future.  They  seemed  to  be  able  to 
see  where  others  found  only  night  and  darkness.  Each 
science  and  art  often  awoke  to  perceive  its  way  barred 
by  some  hill  of  difficulty,  round  or  over  which  they 
could  discover  no  way;  then  the  members  of  the 
Loomiamo   who  had   made   special  study  of  its  path 


55 2  Limanora 

were  called  in  to  point  out  the  possible  tracks  that 
might  lead  past  the  obstacle.  Or  again  a  family  would 
find  the  way  of  its  science  or  art  untraceable;  they 
would  grope  blindly  about  for  it  and  yet  see  no  farther 
than  the  facts  and  methods  immediately  before  them. 
Here  the  help  of  the  Fraloomiamo  was  indispensable; 
a  thousand  different  way-marks  would  soon  be  ap- 
parent, and  the  route  of  future  development  would 
grow  plain. 

The  pioneering  families  were  the  heroes  of  the  Ima- 
nora,  although  most  of  the  hard  work  belonged  to  those 
who  watched  over  the  individual  sciences  and  arts. 
Nothing  could  be  done  without  them,  and  the  exhila- 
ration of  trust  in  them  and  need  of  their  services  gave 
extraordinary  vigour  to  their  special  faculty.  The 
close  of  a  century  was  one  of  the  great  autumns  of  their 
literature;  their  harvests  at  that  era  were  marked  by 
fulness  and  wealth,  and  the  pace  of  their  work  gave  it 
exceptional  fervour  and  glow.  In  the  West  we  should 
have  called  the  passionate  ardour  with  which  they 
threw  off  scheme  after  scheme,  inspiration  of  the  high- 
est order.  But  they  knew  the  working  of  their  faculty 
as  well  as  any  of  the  inventors  knew  the  intricacies  of 
their  machines.  There  was  nothing  mysterious  about 
it.  Their  clear  knowledge  of  its  constitution  and  of  the 
conditions  that  favoured  its  growth  made  it  easy  for 
them  to  predict  when  its  pace  and  volume  would  be 
torrential,  and  every  preparation  was  made  by  the 
pioneering  families  to  meet  the  exceptional  drain  on 
their  energies  at  the  close  of  every  century. 

Loomiefa  was  then  the  scene  of  the  most  striking  pre- 
figurant  displays  that  the  human  mind  could  conceive. 
The  resources  of  Limanoran  skill  and  ingenuity  were 
brought  to  bear  on  it,  and  nothing  was  left  undone  to 


The  Manora  and  the  Imanora     553 

impress  the  event  upon  the  imaginations  and  memories 
of  the  younger,  for  the  elders  expected  that  it  would 
thus  mould  the  natures  of  the  coming  generation 
through  the  minds  of  the  prospective  parents.  The 
world  as  it  might  be,  if  certain  lines  of  development 
were  followed,  was  pictured  in  the  most  impressive  way 
possible;  and  to  this  people,  it  seemed  to  me,  every- 
thing was  possible.  The  Imanora  had  the  sublimity 
and  transcendent  consecration  of  a  great  religious  de- 
parture, whose  significance  was  fully  foreseen. 


CHAPTER  XI 


KTHICS 


I  AFTERWARDS  found  that  Imanora  necessarily 
differed  from  Imanora  as  widely  as  age  from  age  or 
man  from  man,  it  being  as  it  was  the  universal  outlook 
of  so  progressive  a  people.  What  one  centennial 
mount  of  vision  foresaw  as  a  possibility  the  next  viewed 
as  an  accomplished  fact.  What  one  century  peered 
into  the  darkness  to  descry,  another  brought  into  the 
daylight  of  achievement,  and  a  third  antiquated. 

But  there  were  other  and  wider  differences  than  this 
I  have  stated.  Though  all  phases  of  the  civilisation 
were  reviewed  in  relation  to  the  future,  generally  one 
phase  took  prominence  and  gave  character  to  each 
Imanora.  In  the  earlier  periods,  after  the  purgations, 
the  physiological  and  biological  sciences  and  arts  pre- 
dominated; for  the  elders  were  most  anxious  then  to 
bring  the  physical  basis  of  their  life  up  to  the  level  of 
quickening  progress.  Then  came  the  periods  specially 
devoted  to  advance  in  chemistry  and  physics  and  the 
other  sciences  and  arts  that  gave  them  new  power  over 
the  outside  world.  One  century  was  the  great  as- 
tronomical period,  when  the  imagination  of  the  race 
stretched  out  with  yearning  to  other  stars.  Another 
was  the  great  inventive  era,  when  it  seemed  as  easy  as 

554 


Ethics  555 

a  dream  to  make  new  machines  which  should  open  out 
wide  prospects  of  additional  conquest  over  nature  and 
humanity. 

In  the  more  recent  centuries  ethics  had  again  come 
to  the  front,  new  points  of  view  having  been  shown  by 
the  great  discoveries  and  inventions  of  many  centuries. 
The  first  Imanora  after  the  series  of  purgations  was 
complete  had  been  predominantly  ethical.  The  race 
had  bent  its  attention  so  exclusively  upon  the  crimes 
and  vices  which  had  hindered  their  advance  for  ages, 
that  they  could  think  of  almost  no  other  development 
than  the  ethical.  The  elders  had  been  investigating 
for  years  little  else  than  the  defects  in  the  moral  nature, 
their  bases  in  the  physical  system,  and  the  methods  of 
remedying  them.  They  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
after  all  their  researches  that  nothing  could  be  done 
for  the  cure  of  the  minor  vices  till  the  most  vicious  and 
defective  characters  had  been  cleared  out.  A  systematic 
purification  of  the  commonweal  must  precede  attempts 
at  moral  reform.  Most  of  the  purgations  were  managed 
by  wise  and  cautious  diplomacy ;  the  bait  of  more  than 
their  share  of  the  wealth  of  the  island  in  portable  form, 
and  the  chance  of  a  new  country  in  which  to  indulge 
their  vice  to  license,  induced  them  to  ship  off  to  a  dis- 
tance. Only  a  few  needed  forcible  measures  to  make 
them  remove.  The  lying  and  hypocritical,  the  licen- 
tious, the  envious  and  jealous,  the  boastful  and  the 
epicurean,  the  religiously  intolerant  and  superstitious, 
readily  seized  the  opportunity  of  seeking  a  country 
where  they  might  make  their  own  laws  and  shape  their 
customs  to  suit  their  special  weakness.  The  warlike 
and  murderous  and  the  thievish  and  socialistic  thought 
they  could  force  a  still  better  bargain ;  they  had  strong 
inner  doubts  whether  they  would  be  likely  to  have  as 


556  Limanora 

fine  an  arena  for  their  talents  in  a  new  country,  and 
whether  they  would  make  the  best  companions  for  one 
another.  An  increase  of  the  inducement  had  little 
effect  on  them;  they  felt  that  their  special  vices  would 
lose  half  their  attraction  when  removed  from  the  pre- 
sence of  the  contrasted  and  shrinking  virtues.  Much 
of  the  pleasure  of  a  murder  or  a  theft  lay  in  the  neces- 
sity for  its  concealment,  and  the  ingenuity  required  to 
evade  punishment.  The  occupations  ceased  to  be  fine 
arts  as  soon  as  they  became  the  occupations  of  the 
whole  community.  To  these  criminal  sections  of  the 
race  force  had  to  be  applied  before  they  left  the  island; 
it  had  to  be  a  policy  of  deportation. 

It  was  little  wonder  that  for  a  century  after  absorp- 
tion in  such  work  the  civilisation  of  Limanora  was  es- 
sentially ethical.  To  rid  themselves  of  every  trace  of 
the  detestable  vices  of  which  they  had  just  seen  the 
worst  specimens  deported  over  the  horizon,  became 
the  one  aim  and  ideal  of  the  now-expurgated  people. 
Development  seemed  nothing  more  than  greater  ease 
and  habitualness  in  the  virtues.  To  be  purer,  truer, 
more  tolerant,  more  generous,  more  gentle  and  modest 
and  loving,  was  their  one  idea  of  progress.  The  out- 
look from  the  first  Imanora  was  towards  an  ideal  of 
such  benignity  and  kindliness  as  would  make  all  per- 
sonal relations  easy  and  happy  beyond  the  conception 
of  other  nations. 

The  first  few  decades  of  the  next  century  gave  them 
exhilaration  in  the  pursuit  of  this  aim.  They  took  the 
greatest  delight  in  eradicating  the  seedling  ferocities  of 
their  savage  past.  Spite,  rancour,  disdain,  pitilessness, 
vanity,  surliness,  ingratitude,  partiality,  want  of  can- 
dour, acerbity,  meanness,  and  all  uncharitableness  were 
rigorously  checked,  and  every  thought  or  energy  that 


Ethics  557 

might,  when  abused,  tend  in  these  directions  was 
finally  mastered.  It  was  a  delight  to  help  one  another 
in  the  crusade  against  these  petty  defects.  Nothing 
seemed  so  noble  or  progressive  as  to  spend  ever}-  leisure 
moment  on  cultivating  the  generous  attitude  towards 
one  another. 

But  they  soon  saw  the  limits  of  such  a  progress. 
The  virtues  became  easy  and  common  to  all  and  it 
grew  difficult  to  find  new  ethical  worlds  to  conquer. 
Most  of  them  indulged  too  eagerly  in  introspection 
and  some  turned  morbidly  self-critical,  finding  defects 
where  there  were  none.  Imagination  became  a  factory 
of  petty  faults  and  vices.  The  result  was  new  and  real 
faults,  which  threatened  to  maim  their  civilisation  and 
bar  their  further  progress.  They  were  painfully  self- 
conscious,  fearing  lest  the  eyes  of  a  neighbour  or  com- 
rade should  discover  in  them  germs  of  moral  disease 
which  had  escaped  their  own  microscopic  criticism. 
They  shrank  from  beginning  any  enterprise;  they 
feared  to  come  to  decisions  or  make  resolves,  lest  they 
should  be  wrong.  They  tolerated  and  even  encouraged 
faults  and  defects  in  their  friends  which  they  would 
have  drastically  eradicated  from  their  own  natures;  they 
nursed  in  pity  and  generosity  weak  characters  and  dis- 
eased systems  into  length  of  life,  and  shrank  from  for- 
bidding them  parenthood  and  posterity.  They  strained 
at  gnats  and  swallowed  camels  and  indulged  in  constant 
casuistry.  In  short,  the  whole  race  fell  into  a  chronic 
spiritual  invalidism  and  many  of  them  were  afflicted 
with  moral  hypochondria.  They  felt  the  pulses  of 
their  souls  daily  and  hourly,  and  were  ever  haunted 
with  the  fear  of  the  old  vices  returning  on  them,  so 
losing  their  masculine  grit  and  self-command.  Fin- 
ally they  threatened  to   become   a   race   of  sinewless 


558  Limanora 

effeminates   with    nothing   but   spiritual  collapse  and 
palsy  before  them. 

It  was  clear  that  this  microscopic  introspection  and 
moral  unrest  must  cease,  if  there  was  to  be  any  real 
advance.  They. had  already  recognised  that  ethics  de- 
veloped by  stages,  and  that  any  attempt  on  the  part  of 
a  race  to  force  it  beyond  the  intellectual  point  of  view 
which  they  had  reached  only  ended  in  temporary  fail- 
ure and  retrogression.  No  new  moral  outlook  can  be 
attained  unless  reason  has  ascended  a  higher  mount 
of  vision.  Revelation  can  never  come  without  new 
achievement.  A  fixed  quantity  of  ethical  knowledge 
in  a  nation  is  moral  death,  and  to  systematise  ethical 
maxims  into  an  absolute  code  for  all  time  is  to  enslave 
the  reason  of  the  world.  For  what  is  the  almost  un- 
attainable ideal  of  one  stage  of  racial  development  is 
the  antiquated  truism  of  a  later  stage.  Savage  man 
compares  ill  in  polit}'  and  moral  code  with  the  repub- 
lics of  the  bee  and  the  ant,  just  as  his  engineering 
and  architectural  skill  are  infantile  beside  those  of  the 
beaver.  How  unprotective  and  even  cruel  he  is  to  his 
aged  and  women  and  children,  compared  with  many 
animals!  How  unadvanced  even  the  most  civilised  are 
in  truth  and  loyalty  compared  with  the  dog!  How 
weak  in  the  reasoning  that  is  based  on  the  reports  of 
the  senses  are  men  in  general  compared  with  the  wild 
animals!  There  is  evidently  an  infinite  variety  of 
stages  in  the  ethical  and  intellectual  development  and 
vision  of  man,  as  there  is  in  those  of  the  animals.  The 
most  advanced  human  beings,  just  like  the  least  ad- 
vanced, are,  in  some  points,  lower  than  the  beasts. 
But  man  can,  if  he  will,  have  mastery  of  his  circum- 
stances and  conditions,  inasmuch  as  he  can  examine 
himself  by   reflection,  and  tends  to  examine  himself 


Ethics  559 

through  self-consciousness.  The  power  and  tendency, 
however,  are  only  fitfully  taken  advantage  of,  and  it 
is  therefore  at  long  intervals  that  even  the  best  races 
accelerate  the  pace  of  their  progress  beyond  that  which 
nature  herself  indicates. 

The  elders,  and  through  them  the  people,  were  per- 
suaded that  this  absorbing  pursuit  of  ethical  improve- 
ment must  be  abandoned.  The  development  of  the 
physical  system  was  the  first  distraction  that  they 
thought  of;  and  their  bodies  grew  in  muscular  power, 
in  grace  of  form,  and  in  litheness  of  movement.  It 
was  during  this  athletic  period  that  flight  through  the 
air  was  achieved;  then,  too,  physiology  and  medicine 
grew  into  real  sciences  and  began  to  direct  the  evolu- 
tion of  physical  man,  and  the  struggle  against  the 
hosts  of  microscopic  parasites  that  over-populate  the 
elements  and  have  to  seek  pastures  in  the  human  body. 
It  was  in  this  era,  too,  that  they  mastered  the  secret  of 
prolonging  life  and  began  the  series  of  experiments  in 
food  and  other  forms  of  sustenance,  and  in  heredity, 
which  ended  in  giving  them  centuries  instead  of  decades 
to  live. 

It  soon  came  to  be  noticed,  however,  that  a  new  but 
analogous  hypochondria  began  to  seize  even  the  youth- 
ful athletes  of  the  race.  There  was  too  much  direct 
attention  paid  to  the  state  and  development  of  the  body 
to  be  wholesome.  Athletic  egotism  became  rampant, 
and  as  a  result  of  it  a  scorn  of  intellectual  pursuits.  It 
was  as  truly  a  diseased  state  of  the  human  system  as 
the  moral  invalidism  with  which  they  had  been  afflicted 
in  the  previous  era.  Thews  and  sinews  were  measured 
and  examined  with  scientific  minuteness.  Muscular 
development  was  appraised  and  applauded  as  moral 
qualities  had  formerly  been.     The  spirit  began  to  be 


560  Limanora 

impoverished;  the  brain  decreased  in  weight  and  fine- 
ness of  convolution.  Athletic  introspection  was  coming 
to  be  as  painful  and  masterful  a  disease  as  moral  intro- 
spection had  been.  Diet  and  exercise  became  the  ab- 
sorbing topics  of  daily  conversation  and  nothing  was 
invented  but  machines  for  training  the  body.  Most 
palpable  of  all  the  consequences  was  the  growth  of  ar- 
rogant gait  and  rough  manners,  and  this  was  the  first 
symptom  to  call  attention  to  the  new  malady.  It  be- 
came clear  to  the  elders  that  the  worst  form  of  atavism, 
return  to  the  savagery  that  is  just  above  animalism, 
was  about  to  reappear,  and  with  it  would  come  weak- 
ened heart  and  lungs  and  disordered  digestion ;  for  the 
new  training  overstrained  all  the  organs,  and  threw 
them  into  disrepair. 

The  conclusions  drawn  from  these  two  experiences 
were  that  variety  of  occupation  was  one  of  the  first  es- 
sentials of  mental  and  bodily  health,  and  that  absorp- 
tion in  the  improvement  of  any  part  or  section  of  the 
human  system  induced  disease  both  of  mind  and  body; 
morality  and  health  are  better  cultivated  as  indirect 
aims  of  individual  existence;  they  defeat  their  own 
ends  when  they  become  egoistic  or  introspective.  In 
order  to  remedy  the  evils  which  were  threatening  the 
life  of  the  state,  its  framework  was  completely  re- 
formed. To  every  family  and  individual  was  assigned 
an  external  work  that  would  draw  the  thoughts  away 
from  self  for  the  greater  part  of  the  twenty-four  hours; 
every  mature  member  of  the  community  was  expected 
to  achieve  something  unconnected  with  himself  ever}' 
day.  Kxercise  merely  for  amusement  was  cut  down  to 
a  minimum,  and  in  order  to  keep  the  body  in  full 
vigour,  the  centre  of  force  was  organised,  where  every 
man  and  woman  had  to  do  so  much  useful  ph}'sical 


Ethics  561 

work  in  the  round  of  the  clock.  The  care  of  the  health, 
both  mental  and  bodily,  was  handed  over  to  the  medi- 
cal elders,  who  were,  first  of  all,  the  healthiest  and 
healthiest-minded  of  the  older  men  of  the  nation. 
Watching  for  symptoms  of  disease  in  one's  system, 
whether  moral  or  corporeal,  fell  into  oblivion,  and  the 
great  era  of  external  achievement  began.  Specialisa- 
tion of  work  was  its  chief  principle  and  the  source  of 
its  success,  but  no  one  was  allowed  to  fall  into  excessive 
specialism,  such  as  would  atrophy  all  but  one  set  of 
faculties  and  energies.  No  part  of  the  body  or  mind 
was  left  without  daily  or  weekly  exercise.  The  elders 
mapped  out  the  various  types  of  intellectual  and  phy- 
sical work  from  which  a  man  or  woman  might  select  to 
fill  leisure  time.  Kveryone  had  a  large  choice  within 
a  limited  number  of  kinds  of  work,  generally  kinds  of 
work  which  were  dissimilar  to  his  special  employment. 
If  it  were  left  to  a  man  to  choose  his  own  type  of  dis- 
tractions, he  might  select  that  which  would  feed  high 
the  sides  of  his  nature  he  most  used,  and  atrophy  those 
that  most  needed  development;  for  ease  of  application 
is  an  important  factor  in  his  choice  of  exercise  and 
amusement,  and  might  become  too  dominant. 

It  was  not  in  order  to  assimilate  the  bases  of  the  na- 
tures of  the  community  that  this  limitation  of  leisure 
employments  was  adopted.  On  the  contrary,  one  of 
the  subordinate  aims  of  the  elders  was  to  introduce  as 
great  a  variety  as  possible  into  the  talents,  faculties, 
and  tendencies  of  the  race.  Equality,  and  still  more 
similarity,  of  members  of  a  community,  they  well  knew 
from  the  laws  of  nature  meant  stagnation  if  not  com- 
plete national  death.  Throughout  the  cosmos  it  was 
the  unequal  degree  to  which  various  bodies  and  exist- 
36 


562  Limanora 

ences  shared  in  different  types  of  energy  that  produced 
the  unstable  equilibrium  we  call  life.  The  disparate 
masses  of  the  planets  induced  those  currents  of  influ- 
ence we  call  gravitation,  one  of  the  greatest  sources 
of  power  in  our  world.  The  differences  in  temperature 
between  the  sun  and  the  planets  make  it  of  such  vast 
importance  as  a  source  of  heat  and  energy  to  them,  and 
it  is  the  difference  of  two  bodies  as  to  electric  state  that 
induces  currents  of  electricity  between  them.  As  soon 
as  there  is  equilibrium  of  all  the  atoms  or  bodies  or  ex- 
istences within  a  certain  sphere  of  influence  there 
ceases  to  be  movement  in  it  and  death  supervenes;  and 
if  all  bodies  and  existences  in  the  cosmos  had  an  equal 
and  similar  share  of  all  its  elements  and  forces,  it 
would  be  dead.  The  Deity  himself,  the  sum  and  source 
of  all  life,  must,  as  an  eternal  existence,  have  unend- 
ing variety. 

The  law  of  the  universe  is  the  law  of  the  political 
and  moral  world.  There  can  be  no  life  where  there  is 
complete  stable  equilibrium,  that  is,  where  ever)r  mem- 
ber of  a  community  is  exactly  similar  to  every  other 
member  in  privileges.  Currents  of  influence  cease. 
Impetus  and  motive  vanish.  Desire  and  yearning  and 
love  disappear  with  passion  and  ambition.  The  social- 
istic ideal  is  social  and  political  death. 

The  everlasting  flow  of  influence  or  power  from 
point  to  point  is  the  essential  condition  of  vigorous 
existence  in  a  community  or  race,  therefore  one  of  the 
chief  subsidiary  aims  of  the  directors  of  Ljmanora  was 
the  creation  of  variety  and  inequality  of  nature  and 
position.  This  made  them  adopt  the  family  as  the  unit 
in  the  state,  for  in  the  family  there  would  be  shelter  for 
any  new  individual  talent,  and  heredity  would  cherish 
and  increase  it  as  it  handed  it  on.     In  the  Western 


Ethics  563 

states  the  influence  of  the  family  over  its  children 
ceases  not  long  after  boyhood  or  girlhood,  and  the 
world  soon  puts  them  into  the  same  moulds  as  its 
favourite  men  and  women;  individuality  and  original- 
ity in  most  are  planed  down  by  the  recognised  conven- 
tions. A  longer  continuance  of  family  life  and  influence 
would  secure  and  strengthen  any  new  variations  in  a 
talent  or  tendency,  til  1  the  character  was  strong  enough 
to  stand  by  them  as  its  own  and  defend  them  against 
the  criticism  of  aliens  and  strangers.  Diversity  in 
unity  was  the  ideal  of  family  life  in  Ljmanora.  The 
elders  of  a  family  watched  with  eagerness  for  any 
modification  of  the  special  faculties  or  powers,  and 
nursed  it  with  the  most  anxious  care,  if  the}'  decided 
that  it  would  assist  the  advance  of  the  race,  and  the 
medical  elders  were  ever  suggesting  the  proper  cross 
for  producing  a  new  variety  of  the  old  talents.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  most  responsible  duties  of  the  council 
of  elders  was  to  decide  as  to  the  matings  and  parent- 
hoods  of  the  community;  in  this  lay,  they  felt,  the 
guidance  of  their  destiny,  the  real  germ  of  the  future. 
Thus  and  thus  alone  were  they  able  to  keep  up  that 
divergence  of  new  species  which  would  ensure  an  ever- 
quickening  flow  of  life  in  the  race. 

They  had  cut  off  by  their  policy  of  complete  isola- 
tion most  of  the  stimulus  that  comes  from  alien  rivalry. 
Such  rivalry,  they  thought,  would  be  worse  than  none; 
for  it  would  at  last  drive  them  to  adopt  the  means  and 
weapons  of  their  rivals,  which  they  considered  wholly 
retrograde  and  evil.  It  would  be  not  unlike  a  compe- 
tition between  man  and  the  wild  beasts.  Any  kind  of 
communication  with  those  who  were  below  them  in 
civilisation  and  deliberately  unprogressive,  was  certain 
to  taint  and  drag  down,  and  the  strong  consciousness 


564  Limanora 

of  this  fact  checked  the  natural  tendency  of  such  be- 
nignity as  theirs  towards  missionaryism. 

At  the  same  time  they  knew  well  that  no  people 
would  ever  advance  without  competition  and  the  strug- 
gle that  ensues  on  competition.  They  greatl}'  encour- 
aged variation  and  inequality  within  their  state,  but 
were  certain  that  this  was  not  enough.  There  must 
be  the  knowledge,  if  not  the  immediate  presence,  of 
another  type  of  being,  similar  to  their  own  yet  higher 
in  some  features,  in  order  to  stimulate  advance.  To 
get  this  was  the  object  of  their  system  of  couriers  into 
space,  both  mechanic  and  human.  They  were  never 
weary  of  gathering  in  all  possible  indications  of  higher 
intelligences  in  extra-terrestrial  elements  and  regions. 
For  a  long  period  they  had  been  satisfied  with  the  re- 
ports of  their  idrovamolans,  and  other  recorders  of 
events  which  occurred  on  the  earth,  out  of  reach  of 
their  unaided  senses.  But  it  gradually  pressed  itself 
home  upon  them  that  the  comedy  of  terrestrial  exist- 
ence gave  no  stimulus  to  progress;  it  stirred  their 
laughter,  or  scorn,  or  indignation,  or  disgust  too  often 
to  edify.  Rare,  indeed,  was  it  to  witness  a  deed  or 
phase  of  civilisation  that  gave  them  a  new  model,  or 
inspired  them  to  higher  life.  It  was,  as  a  rule,  de- 
grading to  watch  beings  in  their  own  shape  waste  their 
noble  faculties  on  the  cruelties  of  war,  the  meannesses 
of  commerce  and  industrialism,  the  pettinesses  of  social 
intercourse,  and  the  gross  deceits  and  pretences  of 
politics,  diplomacy,  and  public  life. 

Year  by  )'ear  the  racial  energy  was  drawn  off  from 
the  spectacle  of  terrestrial  history.  It  grew  less  and 
less  attractive,  and  the  elders  came  to  the  decision  that 
it  had  almost  better  pass  unnoticed  by  all  but  the  most 
mature  and  experienced.     Thus  it  became  the  more 


Ethics  565 

necessary  to  open  up  other  spheres  of  stimulus  and  in- 
spiration. The  thoughts  of  the  race  gravitated,  first 
to  other  stars,  then  to  the  exuberant  life  they  found  in 
interstellar  space.  For  a  time  they  thought  that  only 
in  other  worlds  could  be  found  intelligences  like  their 
own  to  stimulate  them  by  their  competition;  and  their 
intellectual  energy  was  set  upon  opening  up  intercourse 
with  the  inhabitants  of  these.  The  imaginative  fami- 
lies published  book  after  book  on  the  possibilities  and 
means  of  stellar  intercommunication,  and  afterwards 
of  stellar  migration.  Astronomy  and  its  subsidiary 
and  allied  sciences  and  arts  for  several  centuries  out- 
paced all  others  in  development.  The  world  began  to 
seem  narrow  and  prison-like,  so  eager  was  Limanoran 
thought  after  stellar  flight.  All  the  conditions  of  voy- 
aging through  space  were  investigated,  all  available 
means  experimented  on,  all  the  possible  routes  and 
their  laws  discovered.  It  seemed  as  if  within  a  few 
centuries  the  round  of  the  earth  would  be  spurned,  and 
the  nearest  star  colonised  by  terrestrial  beings. 

The  discovery  of  the  varied  life  inhabiting  the  ether 
gave  pause  to  all  such  speculations  and  schemes.  It 
was  manifestly  possible  to  find  stimulus  from  intelli- 
gences nearer  than  the  other  planets.  Infinite  space, 
instead  of  being  a  desert  strewn  with  the  wrecks  or 
embryos  of  stars,  is  as  full  of  life,  and  of  the  elements 
and  nuclei  of  life,  as  any  world  which  spins  through  it. 
They  had  ever  counted  it  as  unlikely  that  the  life  and 
the  life-energy  of  the  cosmos  should  be  confined  to  the 
star-dust  strewn  over  it,  or  that  its  vast  interstellar 
spaces  should  be  given  up  to  nothing  but  the  passage 
of  rays  from  star  to  star,  cold  and  inhospitable  to  every 
form  of  existence.  They  felt  it  to  be  more  in  accord- 
ance with  the  lavishness  of  nature  that  these  spaces 


566  Limanora 

should  be  life-crammed  instead  of  life-proof.  Why 
should  life  be  unable  to  adapt  itself  to  the  conditions 
of  space,  when  it  has  been  found  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
bewildering  variety  of  conditions  existing  on  the  sur- 
face of  any  one  world  at  different  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment, and  even  to  the  infinite  variety  of  conditions  that 
govern  the  countless  stars  ? 

On  the  first  discovery  of  life  beyond  the  atmosphere 
they  were  led  by  the  medical  investigators  to  think 
that  it  was  merely  embryonic,  waiting  to  colonise  the 
worlds  that  pushed  through  it.  But  recent  reports  and 
researches  showed  that  the  existences  of  interstellar 
space  were  far  beyond  the  rudimental  stage.  Beings  as 
intricately  organised  as  themselves  left  impressions  on 
their  supra-aerial  lavolans.  They  grew  more  and 
more  convinced  that  the  senses  which  had  evolved 
in  them,  amid  the  gross  atmosphere  of  the  earth  and 
with  the  gross  feeding  that  alone  would  suit  terrene 
constitutions,  were  fit  to  detect  no  other  creatures  than 
those  developed  under  similar  terrestrial  conditions. 
Their  more  recent  and  more  refined  developments 
of  sensuous  perception,  and  still  more  their  latest 
mechanical  inventions,  had  brought  them  within  range 
of  an  infinity  they  had  not  dreamt  of.  Daily  came 
in  from  above  the  atmosphere  reports  that  confirmed 
their  old  belief  in  the  vast  and  varied  population  of 
space.  Beings,  so  constituted  as  never  to  impress 
sight  or  hearing  such  as  men  had,  yet  fit  to  hold  their 
own  with  the  noblest  spirits  that  earthly  imagination 
had  ever  conceived,  swam  close  to  their  atmosphere, 
close  enough  to  leave  their  impress  on  the  sensitive 
films  of  their  courier-instruments,  close  enough  for 
their  own  later-developed  senses  to  perceive,  if  only 
these   were   more   exquisitely  trained.     What  a  vista 


Ethics  567 

of  new  stimulus  the  knowledge  opened  up  to  their 
imaginations! 

There  was  no  more  need  of  projects  for  stellar  migra- 
tion. Here  were  beings  loftier  than  themselves  at  the 
very  gates  of  their  senses,  possible  sources  of  exalted, 
if  not  divine,  influence.  Out  of  them  would  flow  into 
this  little  island  energy  that  would  give  measureless 
impetus  to  its  inhabitants.  Who  could  place  a  limit  to 
the  nobleness  of  the  existences  they  might  find  in  the 
ether,  once  they  were  on  this  track,  and  were  refining 
and  ennobling  the  perceptive  power  of  their  senses? 
There  was  no  conceivable  end  to  the  ethical  elevation 
and  development  they  might  reach,  now  that  they  had 
pierced  the  prison  walls  of  the  earth.  The  sublimer 
amongst  their  old  beliefs  were,  indeed,  coming  true  in 
the  fuller  fruition  of  scientific  discovery.  These  they 
had  long  laid  aside,  lest  they  should  be  mere  fancies 
based  upon  illusion  and  delusion,  when  they  saw  the 
evil  that  the  perversions  of  them  by  churches  and 
priests  worked  amongst  men.  Till  they  discovered  a 
sounder  basis  for  them  than  faithmongers  asserted  for 
their  crude  superstitions,  they  felt  they  must  not  enter- 
tain them  seriously  or  found  action  upon  them;  and 
over  they  threw  them  till  they  should  find  their  way  to 
them  again  upon  the  solid  ground  of  scientific  reason. 

Now  that  they  saw  so  wide  a  horizon  before  them 
they  knew  that  they  need  no  longer  seek  stimulus  in 
the  races  of  men  that  they  had  left  so  far  behind  them, 
and  they  rejoiced.  For,  though  there  were  ever  noble 
and  wise  individuals  to  be  found  here  and  there 
throughout  the  masses  of  the  nations,  and  though 
they  knew  that  these  set  the  standard  of  morality  to 
the  world  around  them,  the  bulk  of  men  lagged  far  in 


568  Limanora 

the  rear  and  often,  when  unnoticed,  sneaked  into  the 
barbarity  and  vice  which  they  had  been  persuaded  to 
abandon.  The  moral  law  of  a  nation,  or  race,  or 
period  is  voluntarily  carried  into  practice  only  by  the 
few  best  of  the  mature  men  and  women;  in  fact,  their 
lives  and  characters  are  the  makers  and  arbiters  of  the 
moral  law.  Their  fellow-countrymen  and  contempo- 
raries feel  the  ideal  thus  held  out  practically  before 
them  as  a  mysterious  influence  that  surrounds  and 
shepherds  them  into  the  path  of  right.  Sometimes,  if 
the  age  or  nation  has  degenerated,  the  mystery  comes 
from  the  best  men  of  the  past  through  books,  or  still 
more  powerfully  through  tradition  and  instinct;  this 
unaccountable  influence  they  call  conscience,  or  the 
sense  of  duty,  or  the  voice  of  God,  or  some  other  name 
that  indicates  its  mystery,  its  directing  power,  and  its 
superior  standpoint.  Priests  and  primitive  legislators 
try  to  formulate  its  commands  in  definite  codes,  and  at 
a  later  stage  thinkers  and  philosophers  attempt  to  rea- 
son out  its  maxims,  and  find  a  unity  and  universality 
in  them.  But  the  influence  defies  such  codification 
and  rationalisation;  with  the  growth  of  the  ages  it 
overflows  and  antiquates  the  primitive  attempt  at  its 
petrifaction,  and  the  variety  of  codes  in  different  races 
or  in  different  periods  laughs  to  scorn  all  efforts  at 
finding  a  universal  basis  for  them.  As  soon  as  a  code 
is  proclaimed  or  a  philosophical  system  worked  out,  it 
begins  to  be  antiquated;  the  best  find  a  better  ideal  in 
front  of  them  and,  striving  after  it,  reveal  the  flaws  in 
the  life  they  have  hitherto  lived,  or  they  resign  them- 
selves passively  to  the  drift  of  circumstance  and  degen- 
erate into  luxury  and  license;  in  the  one  case  the 
influence  overflows  the  code  or  system,  and  makes  it 
seldom  necessary  or  apparent  to  the  view  of  the  race; 


Ethics  569 

in  the  other  it  ebbs  from  it  and  leaves  it  high  and  dry, 
the  flouted,  neglected  wreck  of  an  age  gone  by. 

After  all,  moral  law  is  nothing  but  the  example  and 
character  of  the  best  of  them  working  dimly  upon 
their  yearning  and  capacity  for  advance;  and  their 
best  are  limited  by  the  point  of  view  of  their  time  and 
surroundings.  A  progressive  race  or  age  soon  dis- 
covers the  flaws  in  its  accepted  codes  or  systems  and 
throws  doubt  on  their  authority.  It  is  only  in  a  stag- 
nant or  retrograde  period  that  there  is  no  scepticism  or 
free  thought;  sufficient  unto  it  is  the  law  that  has  come 
down  out  of  the  past;  so  satisfied  are  its  people  with  it 
that  they  never  live  up  to  it,  and  never  feel  any  qualms 
of  conscience  or  entertain  troubled  thoughts  about  its 
neglect.  Developing  civilisation  means  developing 
ethics;  the  best  of  a  race  advance  to  higher  points  of 
view,  and  soon  come  to  be  astonished  at  the  narrow 
and  primitive  moral  law  their  forefathers  have  handed 
down  to  them.  As  they  advance  in  ideals,  the  con- 
science of  the  mass  of  their  countrymen  or  contempo- 
raries advances  too;  what  is  the  rare  virtue  or  heroism 
of  the  noblest  of  one  age  becomes  the  commonplace  of 
the  next;  what  was  the  weakness  or  vice  of  all  becomes 
the  crime  of  the  outcast  and  atavist.  Injunctions  not 
to  kill  are  soon  superfluous  to  all  but  the  criminally  in- 
clined ;  addressed  to  a  whole  people,  they  imply  an  age 
of  the  greatest  rudeness  and  ferocity. 

I  realised  this  more  and  more  clearly  as  I  continued 
to  live  amongst  this  wonderful  people,  and  to  see  into 
their  lives.  The  criminal  and  grossly  atavistic  had 
been  long  ago  swept  out  of  the  island  and  vicious  ten- 
dencies against  the  moral  law  of  past  ages  had  vanished 
before  selection,  crossing,  and  training.  They  would 
have  laughed  if  they  had  been  enjoined  not  to  kill,  or 


57°  Limanora 

steal,  or  lie,  or  commit  adultery.  It  would  be  like 
telling  the  civilised  Europeans  not  to  eat  each  other, 
especially  when  uncooked,  or  telling  the  latter-day 
Englishman  not  to  enslave  his  brothers.  The  proud 
tribes  of  wild  men  counted  it  as  one  of  their  noblest 
prerogatives  to  banquet  on  their  slain  foes  and  even 
on  their  dead  relatives,  and  the  fathers  of  the  present 
race  of  English  and  Americans,  sensitive  as  these  latter 
are  to  the  crime  of  enslavement,  held  their  slaves  with 
no  feeling  that  they  were  outraging  the  moral  law, 
whilst  their  grandfathers  winked  at  the  horrors  of  the 
slave  trade.  The  best  protested  and  gradually  their 
opinions,  and  still  more  their  characters  and  lives,  sank 
as  a  mysterious  influence  into  the  hearts  of  the  race. 
The  next  generation  felt  the  protest  as  a  moral  law  and 
a  conscience,  stinging  them  to  advance  to  the  standard 
of  their  noblest.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  describe 
and  applaud  in  their  finest  literature  vices  that  modern 
men  are  ashamed  even  to  mention.  And  it  will  be  the 
same  with  acts  and  conduct  that  nineteenth  century 
society  condones  and  even  boasts  of;  if  the  European 
world  advances,  in  a  century  or  two  respectable  men 
and  women  will  be  ashamed  to  hear  them  spoken  of. 

The  Iyimanorans  repudiated  scorn  of  their  lowly  kin, 
the  animals;  they  had  long  ago  shed  that  blind  and 
false  shame  which  rejected  the  affinity  of  universal 
nature;  man  was  as  truly  kin  in  his  lower  representa- 
tives to  the  mammoth  as  the  mammoth  to  the  mollusc, 
or  the  mollusc  to  the  microbe.  It  is  true  they  desired 
close  proximity  to  the  non-human  animal  as  little  as 
they  did  to  undeveloped  or  degenerate  man;  inter- 
course with  a  lower  stage  of  life  and  intelligence,  they 
had  long  ago  proved,  leads  ultimately  to  adoption  of 
some  of  its  features  and  much  of  its  standard,  even 


Ethics  57 r 

where  there  is  in  it  the  aloofness  of  the  master  to  his 
slave,  or  the  tamer  to  his  beast;  they  desired  no  master- 
dom  over  lower  natures  and  so  they  exiled  all  animals 
and  all  degenerate  or  undeveloped  men  from  their 
island.  They  welcomed,  however,  every  indication  of 
approach  to  human  traits  or  human  intelligence  in  any 
section  of  terrestrial  life;  it  was  to  them  no  bewilder- 
ment that  they  found  most  species  of  animals  more 
courageous  and  many  more  provident  and  keen  in 
their  outlook  than  most  men,  some  of  them  more 
tender  and  humane  to  their  fellows,  and  some  infinitely 
more  loyal  than  the  most  advanced  races.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  deny,  not  merely  the  higher  emotions,  but  the 
more  difficult  processes  of  reasoning  to  many  of  the 
animals.  The  cunning  of  man  is  often  outwitted  by 
them. 

Facts  like  these,  instead  of  driving  them  to  find 
subtle  methods  of  explaining  them  away  or  denying 
them,  urged  them  on  to  greater  effort  in  their  own 
evolution.  They  saw  in  them  evidence  that  the  whole 
creation  was  striving  upwards,  and  they  resolved  to 
obey  the  universal  law  more  and  more  fully  and  to 
quicken  their  pace.  Any  new  observation  of  animal 
intelligence  or  advance  only  confirmed  their  faith  in 
the  rational  spirit  that  was  working  but  half  seen 
throughout  the  universe,  and  gave  them  greater  im- 
petus on  the  path  of  development  the}'  had  chosen. 

Every  new  age  had  seen  them  rise  above  the  possi- 
bility of  some  old  vice  or  evil  tendency,  reach  some 
new  and  higher  mount  of  ethical  vision,  and  descry 
some  nobler  ideal  ahead  of  them.  They  were  far  out 
of  reach  of  any  return  to  the  fierce  vices  or  defects  of 
a  lawless  or  militant  past.  Never  since  the  exile  of 
Noola  had  they  observed  any  tendency  to  belligerent 


572  Limanora 

atavism;  and  his  return,  purified  and  elevated,  had 
finally  buried  in  oblivion  that  dead  and  degenerate 
preterition.  Thieving  had  vanished  with  such  warlike 
means  of  destroying  and  restoring  the  balance  of  po- 
litical power,  and  its  possibility  ceased  with  the  de- 
valuation of  all  property  but  time,  talent,  and  character. 
Once  time  was  taken  as  the  standard  of  everything  of 
value  instead  of  any  dull  dead  stuff  like  gold  or  jewels 
or  land  or  houses,  the  whole  view  of  property  had 
changed:  for  time  is  a  living,  moving  entity  that  be- 
comes great  or  little,  valuable  or  valueless  with  the 
method  of  using  it;  the  life  of  a  man  limits  it  in  quan- 
tity as  far  as  existence  on  the  earth  is  concerned;  and 
as  soon  as  a  race  realises  this,  it  is  the  rarest  and  most 
highly  prized  commodity  in  the  world;  nothing  can 
take  away  its  value  but  the  heedlessness  or  indolence 
of  its  possessor;  no  man  can  steal  it  from  us  but  our- 
selves. For  many  ages  then  it  was  in  terms  of  time 
that  the  Limanorans  had  expressed  everything  of 
value;  even  talent  and  character  were  thus  express- 
ible, for  their  chief  value  lay  in  their  development;  they 
were  estimated  according  to  the  rapidity  with  which 
they  could  advance  a  definite  and  measurable  stage. 
Thus  theft  became  an  impossible  crime  in  this  island, 
the  true  standard  of  all  value  being  inseparable  from 
the  life  that  possessed  it. 

Lying  and  hypocrisy  and  all  the  crawling  vermin 
that  spawn  from  them  had  long  ago  been  ejected  from 
their  systems;  and  wherever  atavistic  symptoms  of 
them  had  appeared  in  any  child  they  were  cauterised 
by  every  known  method,  gentle  or  drastic.  The  task 
of  cleansing  the  community  of  insincerity  and  artifice 
had  by  no  means  ended  with  the  exiling  of  all  known 
liars  and  dissemblers.     Open  untruth  and  fraudulence 


Ethics  573 

vanished  when  the  development  of  the  intelligence  and 
observation  of  the  people  made  it  eas}'  and  universal  to 
divine  motives  and  inner  thoughts  quite  apart  from  the 
word  or  the  act.  Yet  there  was  still  in  some  a  ten- 
dency to  evasion,  or  equivocation,  or  overstatement. 
The  rags  of  the  old  conventionality  still  hung  about 
them,  and  unawares  there  would  check  them  in  their 
utterances  an  old  fear  lest  candour  should  be  ill-man- 
ners, lest  their  freedom  should  hurt  the  feelings  of  their 
auditor,  or  rouse  the  sleeping  tiger  in  him.  Year  by 
year  was  all  this  getting  eradicated;  but  the  process 
was  quickened  by  the  evolution  of  the  magnetic  sense 
and  by  the  clarifying  of  the  tissues  of  the  body.  The 
more  transparent  the  human  system  became  to  the 
senses  and  the  keener  the  senses  grew,  the  less  cue  and 
the  less  chance  was  there  for  concealment  of  emotion 
or  thought.  They  were  all  thoroughly  trained  in  the 
anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  body  and  the  brain, 
and  in  the  science  that  taught  the  physical  equivalents 
and  accompaniments  of  each  type  of  thought  and  emo- 
tion. Even  without  their  preternaturally  keen  senses 
they  could  tell  from  their  practical  knowledge  of  the 
human  system  the  natural  results  of  any  word  or  act, 
and  their  eyes  and  ears  could  detect  signs  of  emotion 
or  motive  which  seemed  to  be  non-existent.  It  was, 
however,  their  magnetic  sense  that  was  the  greatest 
foe  to  all  deception  or  concealment.  They  could  read 
the  feelings  that  stirred  in  the  heart  of  a  neighbour, 
and  were  even  conscious  of  the  definite  thoughts  pass- 
ing in  his  brain. 

The  physical  equivalents  and  symptoms  of  certain 
emotions  and  passions,  that  used  to  be  common  before 
the  exilings  and  are  too  common  in  all  other  races, 


574  Limanora 

were  scarcely  ever  to  be  found  in  any  mature  Lima- 
noran;  they  had  to  be  studied  in  the  bodies,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  faces,  of  children.  Jealous}',  envy,  hate, 
malice,  anger,  lust,  had  become  obsolete  in  the  race, 
and  only  the  young  were  afflicted  with  them  now;  they 
were  classified  as  mild  spiritual  diseases  that  might,  if 
neglected,  risk  the  permanence  of  the  child  in  the  com- 
munity ;  they  were  the  record  of  a  stage  through  which 
the  race  had  long  ago  passed,  and  they  were  treated  as 
no  fault  of  the  child  itself  but  its  legacy  from  an  an- 
cestry it  could  not  be  made  responsible  for.  Great 
pains  had  been  taken  with  these  moral  childish  mala- 
dies in  former  periods  with  the  result  that  their  ap- 
pearance was  now  seldom  virulent  or  dangerous  and 
never  fatal,  and  that  every  household  knew  by  heart 
the  simple  rules  and  specifics  for  checking  their  de- 
velopment. The  worst  characteristic  of  them  was 
that  they  were  infectious;  but  the  solitary  system  of 
education  rendered  this  inoperative;  in  fact  this  epi- 
demic nature  of  the  moral  disorders  of  children 
made  the  adoption  of  the  one-child  household  and 
the  one- pupil  school  seem  an  absolute  necessity.  Oc- 
casionally, through  some  strong  atavistic  taint  in  the 
nature,  the  appearance  of  one  or  more  of  these  mala- 
dies in  a  child  threatened  its  whole  spiritual  life;  then 
all  the  science  and  wisdom  of  the  island  were  brought 
to  bear  upon  it;  the  nerves  and  tissues  of  the  part  of 
the  human  system  affected,  whether  in  brain  or  heart, 
were  isolated  and  powerful  electro-magnetic  instru- 
ments were  applied  to  them  so  as  to  atrophy  them  and 
render  them  inactive;  the  most  successful  educators  of 
the  island  were  joined  to  the  parents  or  proparents  in 
the  effort  to  get  rid  of  the  evil;  and  the  child  or  youth 
was    constantly   brought    into    intercourse    with   the 


Ethics  575 

noblest  natures  who  exercised  to  the  full  their  morally 
healing  powers.  If  the  malady  still  tainted  the  nature 
up  to  maturity  and  outbalanced  all  the  good  in  it  in 
spite  of  such  continued  curative  efforts,  then  were  the 
elders  sadly  driven  to  the  ultimate  step  of  deporting 
the  diseased  personality.  But  this  had  not  occurred 
for  generations,  and  it  was  hoped  that  the  necessity  for 
drastic  remedies  would  cease  in  a  few  years.  Already 
the  virulence  of  these  childish  ailments  had  almostdisap- 
peared  and  the}7  had  grown  so  mild  in  their  attacks  that 
few  but  the  guardians  observed  their  approach.  They 
were  generally  confined  to  fixed  periods  of  childhood 
or  youth,  periods  that  corresponded  to  the  ages  of  past 
history  in  which  they  severally  raged  in  the  natures  of 
their  ancestors.  But  every  new  generation  saw  these 
periods  shortened  and  driven  farther  back  towards  the 
beginning  of  life. 

The  sense  of  shame  that  attaches  to  some  or  all  of 
these  emotions  in  the  best  of  advanced  races  is  a  sign 
that  they  are  recognised  as  moral  maladies  and  that 
with  farther  advance  they  will  be  forced  back  into  the 
earlier  stages  of  life.  But,  as  they  are,  the  need  to 
conceal  envy  and  jealousy,  malice,  anger,  and  lust 
and  their  symptoms,  is  felt,  and  this  induces  and  con- 
firms wide-spread  habits  of  insincerity  and  deception 
in  most  civilised  peoples,  Western  as  well  as  Eastern. 
This  desire  of  concealment  has  seated  the  habit  of  dis- 
simulation so  widely  and  so  deeply  in  the  breasts  of  all 
that  the  bolder  and  more  roughly  practical  openly  avow 
it  as  a  means  necessary  to  their  advancement  in  life. 
It  had  been  felt  ages  before  in  Limanora  that  as  long 
as  these  hateful  emotions  lurked  in  the  hearts  of  men 
and  women,  there  could  be  no  final  expulsion  of  the 
still  more   hateful    insincerity.     Now  that  they  were 


576  Limanora 

relegated  to  childhood,  concealment  of  the  inner  emo- 
tions had  vanished  and  the  habit  of  petty  evasion  and 
dissimulation  had  been  entirely  eradicated.  Even  the 
histrionic  in  manner  and  gesture  and  facial  expression 
had  disappeared  after  having  been  subjected  to  drastic 
treatment;  it  had  been  criticised  and  derided  whenever 
it  showed  itself  in  any  youth;  for  it  was  only  by  the 
young  and  immature  that  so  crude  an  artificiality  could 
ever  be  adopted. 

One  of  the  last  refuges  of  insincerity  was  artificial 
self-abasement.  As  soon  as  humility  before  the  daily 
marvels  of  the  universe  came  to  be  a  common  attitude 
amongst  them,  its  ape,  spurious  self-depreciation,  ap- 
peared. Young  men  and  women  would  grossly  under- 
state their  achievements  or  claims,  chiefly  in  order  to 
set  up  a  reaction  in  the  minds  of  their  friends  and  com- 
panions, and  tempt  them  to  overstatement.  Ridicule 
soon  put  this  habit  of  poor  and  common  natures  to 
rout.  The  Limanorans  were  now  proud  of  anything 
the}'  had  done  well  or  nobly  and  were  not  ashamed  to 
acknowledge  it.  They  were  willing  without  vaunting 
or  mock-modesty  to  talk  of  any  invention  or  discovery 
or  any  good  or  courageous  deed,  but  in  that  simple, 
ingenuous  way  which  revealed  nothing  but  anxiety  to 
enlighten  others  as  to  the  methods  of  success  and  to 
stir  them  to  advance  beyond  it.  They  needed  none  of 
that  self-advertisement  which  is  the  bane  of  advanced 
and  ambitious  civilisations;  everything  of  merit  in 
their  conduct  and  labour  and  its  products  was  valuated, 
they  knew,  with  an  exactitude  that  left  no  room  for 
misacceptation  by  their  friends  and  companions. 
Everyone  was  so  eager  to  find  an  advance  in  his  neigh- 
bour's work  or  system  that  no  effort  was  needed  to  ex- 
plain or  commend  it.     When  done  its  merits  would  be 


Ethics  577 

recognised  to  the  full.  The  elders  in  their  periodical 
reviews  of  the  work  and  the  progress  of  the  community 
would  estimate  it  at  its  full  value,  and  it  was  one  of  the 
most  important  parts  of  the  training  of  the  youth  to 
appraise  the  value  of  ever}'  deed  and  step  with  a  strict 
impartiality  of  judgment.  To  mete  out  justice  to 
everything  in  life  was  impressed  upon  the  young 
nature  as  one  of  the  foremost  of  duties;  and  to  see 
every  feature  of  history  and  existence  with  a  dispas- 
sionate and  unerring  eye  was  one  of  the  chief  aims  of 
Limanoran  education. 

Thus  it  was  that  for  a  time  the}'  enjoyed  the  comedy 
of  life  as  it  passed  in  other  regions  of  the  world,  for 
the)T  could  see  very  clearly  the  exact  merits  of  every 
man  and  every  deed,  and  the  credulity  and  infatuation 
which  made  them  unrecognisable  in  popular  estimation. 
Delusion  reigned  supreme  and  the  best  of  the  comedy 
was  the  ease  with  which  some  masters  of  the  art  of  self- 
advertisement  could  swell  their  puny  proportions  into 
the  appearance  of  colossal  amplitude;  they  knew  every 
stop  in  public  opinion,  and  could  play  on  its  gullibility 
with  consummate  art.  The  Limanoran  was  taught  to 
place  every  human  achievement  in  the  perspective  of 
the  future,  and  as  he  looked  and  heard  through  the 
idrovamolan,  the  whole  of  life,  as  it  went  in  other  na- 
tions, seemed  one  continued  bathos,  ridiculous  dispro- 
portion between  what  it  appeared  to  be  and  what  it  was. 

But  they  ever  saw  a  darker  side  to  the  spectacles 
they  witnessed  through  this  singular  instrument,  and 
their  laughter  was  softened  and  modified  by  indignation 
and  sorrow.  There  was  a  counterpart  to  the  gullibility 
and  applause  in  the  deep-rooted  habit  of  detraction  and 
slander.  If  an}-  had  the  power  to  see  conduct  and  men 
as  they  were,  impartially  and  clearly,  they  were  not  al- 


578  Limanora 

lowed  to  use  it,  so  busy  were  the  tongues  of  traducers 
and  parasites.  All  human  deeds  were  either  under- 
estimated or  overestimated,  generally  underestimated  if 
the  doer  or  possessor  had  no  favours  to  bestow  and  no 
power  or  influence  to  exhibit.  Aspersion  and  back- 
biting were  common  habits;  for  the  majority  were  un- 
distinguished and  only  in  courts  and  the  circles  of  the 
great  did  that  of  overestimation  find  any  headway. 

A  trivial,  yet  pathetic,  phase  of  the  comedy  was  the 
excessive  self-esteem  that  ran  parallel  with  the  torrent 
of  detraction.  In  Limanora  the  fountains  of  both  had 
dried  up  together.  For  vanity  is  the  effort  of  a  man's 
emotions  to  compensate  for  the  fraud  that  others  con- 
stantly commit  upon  reputation.  Robbery  of  material 
things  is  sternly  repressed  in  most  civilised  communi- 
ties; thus  far  have  they  attained  in  their  hostility  to 
socialism;  finally  one  or  two  have  begun  to  be  uneasy 
about  fair  fame  as  a  possession  more  valuable  than  any 
wealth  and  have  attempted  to  formulate  the  crime  in 
some  crude  law  of  libel  that  is  found  yearly  as  inade- 
quate and  as  primitive  as  one  of  the  codes  of  ancient 
legislators.  But  the  petty  robberies  of  good  fame 
rather  than  the  open  brigandage  of  it  make  none  feel 
safe.  Tongues  will  keep  wagging,  and  as  long  as  they 
wag,  the  conduct  or  character  of  some  will  surely  be 
undervalued.  The  consciousness  of  this,  that  none  but 
the  great  or  distinguished  will  get  their  due  or  more 
than  their  due,  keeps  self-esteem  alive  in  the  breasts  of 
all,  and  self- approbation  an  unceasing  attitude.  Men 
feel  that  they  must  recoup  themselves  out  of  the  un- 
willing feelings  of  others  for  the  perpetual  fraud  upon 
their  reputation.  Self-overestimation  is  the  natural 
complement  of  the  consciousness  of  detraction.  Com- 
monly the  sensitive  organisation  refuses  to  rest  under 


Ethics  579 

the  unending  injustice  and  will  try  to  set  itself  right 
with  the  world;  but  most  sink  after  a  time  into  sullen 
endurance  of  the  wrong  and  cease  to  speak  of  it,  think- 
ing it  irremediable. 

Nothing  so  greatly  astonished  the  L,imanorans  as  the 
concomitant  disappearance  of  detraction  and  vanity 
from  their  midst.  One  of  their  earliest  crusades  was 
that  against  evil  speaking;  it  was  easier  than  they  had 
thought,  for  already  the  principle  of  generosity  to 
others  had  begun  to  work  and  reputation  was  counted 
more  valuable  than  any  property.  When  magnanimity 
had  eradicated  the  habit  of  disparagement,  the  training 
in  impartial  use  of  the  judgment  prevented  the  nature 
swinging  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  shouting  hosan- 
nas  over  the  nothings  of  daily  life.  As  they  gained 
clear-sightedness  in  estimating  human  actions  and  char- 
acter, they  found  that  the  cues  of  vanity  had  disap- 
peared. They  had  no  need  of  crusading  against  the 
vice;  it  had  been  vanquished. 

Another  defect  that  seemed  to  have  vanished  with- 
out effort  was  immodesty.  The  lustful  had  been  exiled 
and  it  was  easy  to  eradicate  from  the  natures  of  those 
that  remained  all  trace  of  sexual  passion,  and  with  it 
all  pruriency.  The  chief  purpose  of  sex  in  nature,  that 
of  propagation  of  the  family,  became  its  sole  purpose; 
and  this,  by  the  control  which  the  elders  exercised  over 
posterity,  grew  as  rare  as  death.  Its  other  ends,  the 
development  of  self-sacrifice  and  the  growth  of  love 
and  friendship,  had  been  completely  detached  from  it 
and  rationalised.  Procreation  with  the  extension  of 
the  race  into  the  future  was  counted  so  tremendous  a 
responsibility  that  most  preferred  to  postpone  it  as  far 
in  life  as  the  instinct  of  the  people  would  allow.  The 
sexual  passion  thus  died  out  of  their  minds  as  out  of 


580  Limanora 

their  natures,  just  as  the  mere  appetites  of  eating  and 
drinking  had  died  out.  They  had  become  parts  of  the 
rational  nature  when  they  were  thought  of  at  all. 

There  was,  therefore,  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  and 
nothing  to  conceal.  Immodesty  vanished  with  the  cue 
and  motive  for  modesty.  They  wore  irelium  draperies 
more  to  temper  the  power  of  heat  and  cold  and  the 
rigours  of  the  upper  atmosphere,  and  to  aid  them  in 
flight,  than  to  hide  their  bodies  from  the  eyes  of  others. 
For  the  draperies  were  gossamer-like  and  semi-diapha- 
nous and  emphasised  the  beauty  and  grace  of  the  body 
as  an  expression  of  soul.  It  was  not  the  face  alone  that 
interpreted  the  mind,  or  attracted  by  its  radiance.  Mag- 
netism rayed  from  every  limb;  and  none  of  the  surface 
of  the  body  was  lost  under  masses  of  garments;  it 
all  came  into  play  as  expressive  of  the  life  within. 
They  shrank  at  first  from  the  unhealthy  pallidity  of 
my  body  as  it  appeared  when  I  first  donned  their  rai- 
ment, but  under  the  transparency  of  my  new  garments 
it  soon  lost  its  ghastly  whiteness  and  acquired  the 
ruddy,  healthy  tints  of  the  face.  For  a  time  I  shrank 
from  the  eyes  of  my  comrades,  but  as  I  grew  accus- 
tomed to  their  absolute  purity  of  thought,  I  lost  all 
consciousness  of  my  body.  There  can  be  no  modesty 
or  immodesty  where  there  is  nothing  to  conceal.  It 
was  one  of  their  subordinate  aims  to  simplify  and 
purify  the  functions  of  the  human  system,  so  that  none 
of  them  should  be  offensive  to  any  of  the  senses,  new 
or  old. 

By  this  semi-diaphanous  exposure  of  most  of  the  sur- 
face of  the  body  there  was  far  more  space  of  skin  for 
the  development  of  sensations  and  new  types  of  senses. 
In  their  pre-purgation  ages,  when  the  greater  part  of 
the  corporeal  system  had  to  be  muffled  in  opaque  gar- 


Ethics  581 

merits  for  the  sake  of  what  was  called  decency,  the  finer 
modes  of  perception  came  to  be  concentrated  in  the  head 
and  the  hand;  one  sense  crowded  another  and  blunted 
its  observations.  Now  every  inch  of  the  corporeal  sur- 
face was  open  to  the  influences  of  sunlight  and  mag- 
netism and  the  other  energies  that  so  freely  permeated 
space,  and  new  forms  of  perception  began  to  develop 
over  the  body,  chiefly  refined  modifications  of  touch. 
The  region  of  the  shoulders  became  especially  sensitive 
to  magnetic  indications.  The  arms  and  chest  mono- 
oplised  the  finer  sensations  of  muscular  force,  and  es- 
pecially of  strain  and  push.  Their  feet  came  to  gauge 
with  great  subtleness  the  strength  and  direction  of  cur- 
rents of  the  wind  as  they  flew  through  the  atmosphere. 
The  spinal  region  tested  the  temperature  of  the  sur- 
rounding space  better  than  any  other  part  of  the  body, 
reacting  at  once  to  the  slightest  change  in  heat  or  cold. 
Another  advantage  of  the  half-transparent  raiment  was 
the  ease  with  which  the  slightest  change  of  emotion  or 
thought  conld  be  seen,  making  concealment  and  hypo- 
crisy an  impossibility.  A  third  was  the  aid  it  gave 
the  medical  elders  in  their  periodical  inspections  of  the 
health  of  each  member  of  the  community;  with  un- 
strengthened  senses  they  could  detect  the  smallest  ob- 
struction in  any  of  the  organs  or  tissues,  so  that  a  mere 
passing  notice  might  be  enough  to  report  on  the  health 
of  the  people. 

But  if  the  sex-problem  had  retained  its  old  obtrusive- 
ness,  this  seemingly  superficial  but  really  important  re- 
form in  dress  would  have  been  impracticable.  Amongst 
the  earliest  questions  that  the  Limanoran  scientists 
faced  was  the  place  of  sex  in  the  universe.  After 
minute  and  wide  research  they  came  to  the  conclusion 


582  Limanora 

that  it  was  but  an  accident  of  existence  on  some  worlds. 
It  was  not  an  essential  of  the  propagation  of  life;  for 
some  species,  like  bacteria,  multiply  by  mere  fission,  so 
that  part  of  the  individual  is  immortal,  and  others,  like 
the  medusae,  and  ferns,  and  mosses,  alternate  asexual 
with  sexual  reproduction.  It  was  manifestly  no  char- 
acteristic of  the  first  and  lowliest  forms  of  life  that 
settled  on  the  earth;  in  fact  large  sections  of  vegetal 
life  retain  the  older  habit  parallel  with  the  new  or 
sexual  habit;  any  piece  of  many  plants  and  trees  cut 
off  and  thrust  into  the  earth  will  become  a  new  plant 
or  tree  of  the  same  kind  without  the  intervention  of  a 
seed  or  genninative  stage.  But  the  change  in  habit 
must  have  been  introduced  into  the  world  not  long 
after  the  appearance  of  animal  life  upon  it;  for  it  is 
only-  in  the  least-highly  organised  animals  that  par- 
thenogenesis appears  in  auy  form.  Their  conjecture 
was  that  sexuality  originated  from  the  meeting  of  the 
germs  of  two  worlds  on  which  life  had  not  gone  far  on 
the  path  of  evolution.  The  newcomers  would  be  un- 
able to  adapt  themselves  and  their  mode  of  generation 
to  the  new  conditions  they  had  to  meet;  and  where 
members  of  the  two  types  settled  side  by  side  in  a  po- 
sition isolated  from  their  kind,  the  instinct  of  propaga 
tion  would  evolve  out  of  their  proximity  a  new  mode 
of  generation,  that  would,  from  the  cross-fertilisation  of 
two  worlds  and  the  combination  of  the  vital  energy  of 
both,  make  a  progeny  more  vigorous  and  a  develop- 
ment easier  and  more  rapid.  The  species  that  re- 
mained faithful  to  parthenogenetic  propagation,  and 
those  that  adopted  the  new  mode  only  partially,  fell 
behind  in  the  evolutionary  race.  Sexual  generation, 
uniting  in  itself  the  vital  principles  of  two  universes, 
swiftly  improved  the  qualities  of  the  species  that  adopted 


Ethics  583 

it  and  made  them  dominant  upon  the  earth.  Asexual 
propagation,  the  easier  and  more  primitive,  gave  the 
advantage  in  numbers  of  individuals  to  the  vegetal  and 
lowly  animal  species  that  clung  to  it,  but  left  them 
almost  incapable  of  evolution.  On  and  upwards  have 
passed  the  dominant  species  through  the  invertebrates 
and  the  mammals  up  to  man,  guided  by  that  bi-sexual 
principle  which  has  in  it  the  stimulus  of  two  types  of 
life  and  two  universes.  Nor  did  it  seem  to  them  con- 
trary to  the  analogy  that  some  worlds  should  have  in 
the  life  upon  them  a  tri-sexual  or  even  a  quadri-sexual 
mode  of  propagation,  according  to  the  types  of  vital 
principle  which  have  settled  and  continued  upon  them. 
Wherever  multi-sexual  generation  holds  sway,  there  life 
is  rarer  but  swifter,  and  evolution  carries  it  into  those 
higher  reaches  where  localisation  of  it  upon  an  orb  is 
unnecessary. 

It  was  out  of  sexuality,  they  acknowledged,  that  all 
the  higher  phases  of  existence  upon  earth  had  come, 
love,  friendship,  self-sacrifice;  this,  too,  had  given  to 
humanity  in  its  nobler  developments  the  irrepressible 
yearning  for  another  and  extra-terrene  sphere  and  an- 
other life.  A  vital  principle  issuing  from  a  different 
universe  seemed  to  have  kept  within  it  the  memory 
of  its  first  home  if  not  of  the  free  existence  of  space. 
And  in  man,  at  least,  this  had  come  to  consciousness  of 
itself  and  led  him  to  religious  reverence  and  devotion 
and  the  expectation  of  immortality. 

They  considered  none  the  less  that  sex  had  almost 
finished  its  task  in  many  wTorlds,  and  would,  in  no  very 
distant  age,  have  accomplished  all  it  could  do  for  the 
Limanoran  race.  When  a  principle  of  life  has  done  its 
task  it  must  retire  and  give  place  to  something  better; 
else  it  would  become  retrogressive  and  wholly  evil,  a 


584  Limanora 

mere  despot  selfishly  stopping  all  progress.  Every 
race  that  meant  to  quicken  the  pace  of  its  evolution 
had  to  take  command  of  it  and  guide  it  to  its  own 
higher  ends.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  nobler  types 
of  man  to  raise  nature  above  her  lower  needs;  the 
Limanoran  ideal  was  to  develop  the  creative  power  of 
the  human  system  so  far  that  it  might  master  all  the 
secrets  of  life  and  be  able  to  mould  human  beings  and 
breathe  the  breath  of  life  into  them,  and  thus  they  would 
be  able  to  supersede  the  sexual  mode  of  propagation. 

As  it  was,  they  had  gone  far  towards  the  complete 
mastery  of  the  sexual  principle,  and  could  mould  and 
guide  it  to  any  purpose  that  the  future  of  the  race  de- 
manded. They  knew  the  conditions  that  would  govern 
any  new  human  variety  they  needed  in  the  state  just 
as  well  as  they  could  produce  new  modifications  of 
trees  and  plants  and  flowers.  They  read  the  nature 
of  each  individual  on  the  island  as  easily  as  the}'  could 
read  a  book.  But  besides  this  the}'  had  in  the  pedi- 
gree-annals in  the  valley  of  memory  a  complete  account 
of  all  the  possibilities  of  any  family  or  any  branch  of 
it.  From  the  developments  of  recent  years  and  the 
outlook  that  they  ever  kept  up  far  into  the  future 'they 
judged  when  some  new  type  of  nature  would  be  needed 
for  some  post  in  the  community  and  gauged  exactly 
the  qualities  that  would  have  to  be  blended  in  order  to 
produce  it.  Then  turning  to  the  valley  of  memories, 
thejr  studied  the  characters  and  possibilities  of  the 
various  families  that  had  one  or  more  of  those  qualities 
exceptionally  developed.  By  the  aid  of  the  physio- 
logical and  biological  experts  they  were  able  to  fix  the 
two  out  of  which  the  individual  parents  would  have 
to  be  chosen;  and  from  their  knowledge  of  the  charac- 
ter and  history  of  every  member,  the  elders  of  these 


Ethics  585 

two  families  along  with  the  medical  elders  were  able  to 
indicate  the  man  and  the  woman  who  would  exactly 
fulfil  the  purpose  of  the  state.  Years  were  spent  on 
maturing  the  pair  in  the  directions  required  and  in 
entangling  their  imaginations  and  affections  mutually. 
None  were  allowed  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of 
parenthood  till  they  were  matured  to  their  fullest  pos- 
sibility; for  they  held  that  all  the  essential  characteris- 
tics of  the  two  natures  had  to  be  developed  before  the 
embryo  could  be  produced  in  its  fullest  and  most  virile 
form. 

One  of  the  most  singular  features  of  this  moulding 
of  posterity  was  that  they  did  not  always  choose  the 
most  highly  developed  to  become  the  parents  of  the 
commonweal.  For  it  had  often  been  found  in  the  past 
that  the  individual  who  had  brought  his  peculiar 
faculties  or  qualities  to  the  highest  state  of  refinement 
in  his  own  life  had  exhausted  the  natural  wellspring 
of  them,  and  that  he  handed  them  on  in  most  dimin- 
ished degree  to  his  children.  They  often  preferred  in 
their  selection  of  possible  parents  a  member  of  a  family 
who  exhibited  no  exceptional  energy  in  the  use  of  its 
special  talent;  sometimes  the  least  active  and  the  least 
conspicuous  were  selected.  In  them  individual  work 
had  never  overstrained  their  faculty;  it  lay  fallow  for 
a  generation  and  was  likely  to  spring  forth  with  ex- 
ceptional vigour  the  next.  To  this  I  attributed  their 
acceptance  of  my  own  imperfect  nature  in  their  midst 
and  my  selection  for  mating  with  Thyriel. 

When  a  pair  had  bred  the  child  that  was  required,  if 
they  were  not  conspicuous  for  wisdom  or  self-control, 
it  was  taken  from  them  and  given  to  a  new  pair  who 
became  its  true  parents  and  trained  it  in  the  direction 
it  ought  to  take.     These  proparents  were  generally 


586  Limanora 

more  successful  than  parents  in  educating  and  moulding 
a  character;  they  never  allowed  the  bias  of  natural  af- 
finity to  affect  the  future  of  the  child;  the  parents, 
besides  being  swayed  by  the  pride  of  parenthood  and  the 
vigour  of  their  affection  for  it,  were  too  closely  akin  to 
it  in  qualities  and  character  to  view  it  from  an  impar- 
tial and  independent  standpoint;  and  the  proparents 
were  as  a  rule  selected  on  account  of  their  contrastive 
qualities,  qualities  which  would  form  the  complement 
to  its  own. 

Though  so  much  care  was  spent  on  the  choice  of  the 
stock,  they  considered  it  far  more  important  to  have 
the  citizens  of  the  future  properly  trained,  and  were 
quite  unbending  in  their  insistence  that  every  child 
should  have  the  most  suitable  natures  in  the  commun- 
ity to  educate  it,  whether  these  should  be  its  own 
parents  or  proparents.  Nor  for  ages  had  more  than 
one  child  been  permitted  in  a  household  at  one  time. 
If  a  pair  had  proved  themselves  exceptionally  success- 
ful in  the  production  and  moulding  of  the  two  children 
they  owed  to  the  community,  they  were  allowed  to 
adopt  for  a  lengthened  period  the  profession  of  parent, 
by  far  the  most  important,  if  not  really  the  only,  pro- 
fession in  the  island.  But  they  must  bring  one  child 
up  to  maturity  before  they  undertook  another.  For, 
they  held,  there  was  no  problem  so  complicated,  no 
duty  so  responsible,  no  task  so  exhausting  for  every 
faculty,  as  the  training  of  a  human  being  in  its  earlier 
stages;  to  sculpture  a  new  and  noble  nature  was  con- 
sidered the  greatest  creative  work  that  a  Limanoran 
could  achieve  for  the  state;  the  greatest  talents  that 
ever  appeared  on  earth  could  not  be  better  spent  than 
on  the  parental  profession.  Another  and  as  important 
reason  for  the  unitary  basis  of  the  household  was  the 


Ethics  587 

moral  contagion  imperfect  natures  bring  to  bear  on  each 
other.  Children  were  never  allowed  together  except 
under  the  strictest  supervision;  for  they  soon  undid  all 
the  work  of  their  guardians,  and  confirmed  in  each 
other  the  retrogressive  savagery  through  which  they 
were  passing.  Before  the  Limanorans  had  come  to 
their  full  heritage  of  scientific  knowledge  and  wise 
experience,  they  had  allowed  for  a  few  generations 
households  of  three  or  more  children  together,  in  order 
to  keep  up  the  breed.  But  they  soon  discovered  this 
feature  of  their  domestic  life  to  be  at  the  bottom  of 
the  slowness  of  their  development,  and  abandoned  it. 
After  long  experience  they  decided  that  it  was  better 
worth  while  for  the  race  to  devote  half  a  centu^  of  the 
life  of  the  wisest  and  ablest  to  the  training  of  one 
nature  than  to  do  an)'  other  work  to  be  found  in  the 
universe.  The  greatest  book,  the  most  illuminating 
discovery  or  invention,  was  as  nothing  compared  with 
a  living  centre  of  development  and  progress.  Parent- 
hood and  proparenthood  well  done  were  considered  the 
greatest  claims  to  gratitude  and  love,  and  to  everlasting 
memory  if  there  were  such  a  thing.  For  a  man  and  a 
woman  to  have  given  to  the  state  by  fifty  years'  work 
a  better  trained,  more  nobly  moulded  character,  with 
larger  possibilities  than  they  themselves  had  was  to 
have  done  more  than  if  they  had  discovered  and 
mapped  out  a  new  sphere  for  science  and  thought.  It 
was  one  of  the  greatest  honours  therefore  that  the 
communit)'  could  bestow  upon  any  pair,  to  select  them 
a  third  or  fourth  time  for  parenthood  or  proparenthood. 
That  the  two  sexes  were  both  needed  for  the  training 
of  a  young  nature  to  maturity  was  one  of  the  most  un- 
hesitating conclusions  from  their  experience.  In  spite 
of  the  obliteration  of  all  demarcating  lines  between  the 


588  Limanora 

sexes  as  to  privileges  and  duties  in  the  state,  there  was 
nothing  more  clear  to  them  than  the  permanence  of 
the  distinction  in  their  natures,  as  far  as  life  upon  earth 
was  concerned;  it  had  grown  less  and  less  marked  as 
the  ages  went  on,  and  as  maternity  came  to  be  a  mere 
episode  in  the  long  life  of  a  woman,  }ret  it  remained  as 
real  as  it  ever  had  been,  passing  into  every  phase  of 
the  nature,  imaginative  and  intellectual  as  well  as 
emotional  and  physical,  and  becoming  salient  and 
striking  in  the  procreative  era  of  life.  As  the  animal 
part  of  the  nature  fell  into  greater  subordination,  it 
needed  keener  powers  of  observation  to  note  the  differ- 
ence; yet  it  had  left  its  permanent  mark  upon  the  spirit. 
To  women  was  assigned  work  which  required  slow 
continuous  effort;  for  although  they  are  more  emo- 
tional, they  are  also  by  nature  more  passive.  The 
temperature  of  the  female  in  all  species  is  lower  than 
that  of  the  male,  and  in  human  beings  this  means  less 
energy  and  less  explosiveness;  the  woman  is  ever 
building  up  her  system  by  storing  sources  of  energy, 
the  man  is  ever  using  up  his  stores  of  energy  in  im- 
petuous outbursts  of  work.  The  generations  of  active 
employment  in  which  Limanoran  women  had  been  en- 
gaged, and  the  complete  cessation  of  the  warlike  pur- 
suits that  used  to  fill  the  lives  of  the  men,  had  not 
obliterated  these  distinctions.  The  women  were  still 
best  at  sedentary  occupations;  whatsoever  needed  con- 
tinuity and  singleness  of  purpose  was  given  to  them; 
for  they  have  more  unity  of  nature,  and  can  settle  down 
for  long  periods  to  an  investigation  that  would  be 
monotonous  to  a  man,  and  are  on  the  whole  longer 
lived.  So  any  investigation  that  was  uninvolved,  but 
needed  intensity  of  application  on  the  part  of  one  mind 
for  more  than  an  average  lifetime,  was  handed  over  to 


Ethics  589 

a  woman ;  and  where  the  work  of  several  was  required 
for  a  generation  or  two,  a  woman  was  always  one  of 
the  workers  in  order  to  preserve  the  continuity. 

In  the  imaginative  families  it  was  generally  the  men 
who  did  the  most  striking  work.  Their  bursts  of 
energy  enabled  them  to  go  by  leaps.  They  pioneered 
best  into  the  future;  they  found  the  new  principles  for 
advance  in  invention  and  discover}'.  The  women 
gathered  the  material  for  the  sciences;  the  men  in- 
vented and  applied  the  great  hypotheses  leading  to 
new  laws  and  new  advances;  the}'  also  showed  the  way 
in  progress,  and  tended  rather  to  revolution  than  to 
rest.  Whatsoever  needed  artistic  talent  was  theirs  to 
do.  In  physical  work,  wherever  rapidity  of  movement 
and  fitful  application  of  torrents  of  energy  were  re- 
quired, the  men  took  the  lead;  for  they  were  small  and 
active,  having  now  no  distinctively  muscular  employ- 
ments, like  war  and  hunting,  to  develop  their  muscle 
and  bone  exceptionally.  The  women,  as  naturally  ac- 
cumulative instead  of  prodigal  of  energy,  were  larger 
and  more  passive,  and  took  up  departments  oi  labour 
that  needed  long  and  gentle  persistence.  In  counsel 
they  were  the  conservative  element,  and  in  all  the  as- 
semblies but  those  that  superintended  investigation  into 
the  future,  invention,  and  discovery,  that  is,  in  all 
councils  of  judgment,  they  slightly  predominated  in 
numbers.  If  they  had  wholly  guided  the  community, 
it  would  have  stood  still  or  moved  at  a  rate  that  would 
not  have  been  noticeable  in  the  generations  of  men. 
Happily  the  masculine  imagination  dominated  the 
civilisation,  and  hence  it  was  ever  quickening  its  pace. 
But  the  women  were  no  less  useful  in  preventing  revo- 
lutionary progress,  and  in  making  the  men  wait  and 
meditate  over  the  leaps  they  thought  of  taking. 


59°  Limanora 

It  was  not  so  much  sex-function  itself,  as  the  im- 
press it  had  left  upon  the  natures  of  the  people  that 
supplied  a  rough-and-ready  classification  of  types.  A 
few  of  the  women  who  were  especially  fitted  to  be 
mothers  were  assigned  to  the  maternal  profession ;  their 
natures  seemed  moulded  to  bring  forth  strong,  healthy, 
unexhausted  offspring,  fit  for  the  duties  of  a  new  ad- 
vance. There  were  other  women  who  because  of  their 
nervous  vigour  and  inclination  to  exhaust  their  best 
energies  in  work  were  not  the  most  suitable  for  the 
production  of  children,  and  yet  by  their  sympathy  and 
wisdom  and  love  of  the  3roung  seemed  especially  created 
to  bring  up  children  as  citizens;  these  adopted  the 
proparental  profession.  A  third  type  of  women  were, 
on  account  of  their  quick,  irritable  vigour  and  their 
super-emotional  temperament  and  lack  of  self-control, 
considered  incapable  of  either  function  except  on  rare 
occasions;  and  they  formed  the  largest  class,  the 
worker- women,  rarely  generative  and  alwa}'S  uneduca- 
tive;  they  were  engaged  in  the  sedentary,  acquisitive, 
and  continuous  employments  that  demanded  no  great 
strain  on  the  imagination  or  the  creative  powers  or  the 
muscular  vigour.  But  none  in  the  community  were 
wholly  freed  from  daily  active  work  both  of  body  and  of 
mind,  not  even  those  whose  lives  were  given  up  to  the 
profession  of  maternity.  Amongst  men  all  were  eligible 
as  fathers;  for  though  there  were  always  a  special  diet 
and  training  for  prospective  paternity,  these  might  be 
enforced  simultaneously  with  the  usual  work.  Not 
all,  however,  were  called  on  to  exercise  paternity;  it 
was  a  rare  and  little-noticed  duty,  and  left  small  im- 
press on  the  community.  But  there  were  some  who 
on  account  of  their  great  wisdom  and  self-control  and 
lofty  character  were  specially  fitted  for  the  rearing  of 


Ethics  591 

youth,  and  these  formed  the  male  proparental  profes- 
sion. These  had  their  other  duties  to  perform  in  the 
family  and  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  attend  to  their  in- 
dividual households,  but  they  were  dedicated  to  the 
guidance  of  posterity;  their  eyes  were  more  on  the 
future  than  even  those  of  the  imaginative  families. 
The  rest  of  the  men  formed  the  class  of  male  workers 
at  creative  and  imaginative  work,  and  at  muscular 
work  that  required  agility  and  concentration  of  force. 

Of  the  numbers  in  these  different  classes  the  elders 
had  full  control.  They  knew  all  the  physiological  laws 
governing  the  proportions  of  the  sexes  and  types,  and 
by  their  dietary  and  training  and  medical  precautions 
they  could  fill  the  exact  number  of  vacancies  to  be 
anticipated  in  any  class.  For  instance,  if  one  was 
needed  for  the  profession  of  maternity,  almost  all  the 
energy  of  both  parents  was  spent  for  a  time  in  nutrition; 
they  were  isolated  from  most  activities,  surrounded 
with  what  in  other  civilisations  would  be  called  luxur- 
ies, and  encouraged  to  spend  their  time  in  resting.  So, 
if  a  male  worker  were  required,  the  man  and  woman 
selected  for  parenthood  were  active  workers  them- 
selves; and  during  their  generative  period  their  nutri- 
tion was  reduced  to  the  minimum  for  sustaining  their 
energies,  whilst  they  were  encouraged  to  put  all  the 
activity  they  were  capable  of  into  their  daily  work. 
Their  manuals  of  guidance  in  the  difficult  work  of  fill- 
ing prospective  vacancies  in  the  community  were  full 
of  minute  detail  which  was  based  upon  long  experience 
carefully  recorded  and  classified,  and  still  more  upon 
scientific  experimentation  in  human  embryology  and 
physiology. 

It  was  one  of  the  earliest  conquests  of  the  future 
that  they  made  after  the  great  purgation,  this  guidance 


592  Limanora 

of  the  sexual  and  other  characteristics  of  embryos. 
They  knew  the  exact  stage  at  which  any  new  organ  or 
function  appeared,  for  they  had  first  of  all  studied  the 
moulding  of  embryos  in  animals;  and  afterwards,  by 
the  aid  of  their  new  photographic  and  microscopic  ap- 
paratus that  revealed  the  minutest  detail  of  any  part  or 
movement  within  the  living  human  body,  thejr  were 
able  to  study  the  effect  of  changes  in  exercise  or  diet  or 
mode  of  life  upon  the  development  of  the  human  em- 
bryo. Nothing  was  neglected  to  make  the  knowledge 
complete  and  scientific,  nothing  that  might  help  to  turn 
the  science  of  embryology  into  a  creative  art.  The  in- 
vention of  instruments  which  could  take  the  senses  of 
the  investigators  close  to  any  internal  item  of  the  living 
system  had  made  an  era  in  the  history  of  physiology, 
and  cancelled  the  necessity  of  anatomy  as  its  handmaid. 
The  most  microscopic  change  in  the  structure  of  any 
tissue  in  the  innermost  part  of  the  body  became  patent 
to  the  eye  or  the  ear  or  the  electric  sense  of  research. 
Embryology  had  thus  become  almost  an  exact  science; 
even  the  physiological  side  of  it  had  attained  to  such 
exactitude  as  to  make  it  practically  an  art.  The  medi- 
cal elders  could  investigate  the  health  of  the  embryo 
and  guide  its  development  as  well  as  in  the  case  of  the 
full-grown  child. 

They  were  thus  able  to  formulate  a  complete  art  for 
the  moulding  of  the  unborn  to  the  purpose  the  elders 
indicated  as  best  for  the  future  of  the  race.  Training 
and  education  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  words  began 
long  before  birth.  Of  course  it  had  begun  with  the 
father  and  mother,  if  not  with  the  ancestry;  but  the 
directly  plastic  art  of  fashioning  the  character  began 
with  the  first  appearance  of  life.  The  elders  would 
have  blamed  themselves  if  any  sign  of  gross  atavism 


Ethics  593 

had  shown  itself  in  a  youth,  now  that  they  had  full 
command  of  his  prenatal  history,  and  for  generations 
retrogression  had  become  an  impossibility  in  the  race. 
In  former  ages  it  had  been  one  of  the  most  difficult 
moral  problems  to  fix  the  responsibility  of  a  man's 
crimes;  somewhat  was  due  to  his  own  choice;  but  part, 
they  saw,  was  due  to  his  ancestry,  and  still  more  to  his 
parents,  not  only  in  their  training  of  him,  but  in  their 
prenatal  preparation  if  they  were  not  careful  to  exclude 
gross  or  criminal  ideas  and  emotions  from  their  systems 
whilst  he  was  in  process  of  formation.  Now  they  were 
able  to  apportion  the  blame  with  ease  if  anything  went 
astray  in  the  character  of  the  child.  They  were  there- 
fore minutely  careful  in  the  precautions  they  took  not 
only  in  the  half-century  of  education,  but  in  the  choice 
of  ancestry  and  in  the  guidance  of  the  prenatal  develop- 
ment. To  prospective  parents  the  character  of  the 
future  offspring  was  as  a  conscience  to  their  daily  con- 
duct and  method  of  life.  Ever)7  thought,  emotion,  act, 
was  guided  by  a  sense  that  it  would  affect  the  embryo 
of  the  coming  citizen. 

The  newest  addition  to  their  list  of  sciences,  the 
physiology  of  ethics,  put  into  their  hands  one  of  the 
most  effective  aids  to  this  plasmic  art  of  character,  pre- 
natal and  postnatal.  With  their  instruments  of  in- 
vestigation into  the  human  tissue  ever  advancing  in 
refinement  and  power,  they  were  able  at  last  to  local- 
ise the  physical  centre  and  equivalent  of  each  emo- 
tion; and  thus  having  mapped  out  the  brain  and  the 
nerve-centres,  they  were  able  to  watch  with  their  new 
modifications  of  the  lavolan  the  palpitating  life  and 
movement  in  each  part  with  the  strong  manifestations 

of  its  special  feeling.     Step  by  step  they  found  their 
38 


594  Limanora 

way  towards  the  nosology  of  these  centres,  and  classi- 
fied every  disease  that  turned  an  emotion  from  right  to 
wrong.  Whenever  a  Limanoran  child  became  afflicted 
with  an  evil  or  retrogressive  passion,  he  was  hurried 
off  to  the  ethical  laboratory,  and  the  nerve-centres  of 
his  emotional  and  moral  nature  were  microscopically 
photographed  as  the}7  worked;  a  complete  history  of 
his  tissues  was  recorded  on  irelium-slips,  and,  after  he 
had  gone,  the  investigators  could  run  these  through 
the  recording  instrument  and  study  the  phases  of  the 
feeling  or  passion  at  leisure.  The  bursts  of  mistaken 
emotion  were  livingly  photographed  with  the  greatest 
care,  and  afterwards  the  records  were  watched  through 
their  most  powerful  clirolans.  Then  experiments  were 
made  in  finding  remedies  which  would  check  the 
growth  of  the  disease  in  the  tissue.  At  first  the  thera- 
peutics of  morality  were  merely  empirical;  they  tried 
the  remedies  which  had  been  successful  with  the  com- 
mon physical  ailments  of  humanity,  and  found  most 
fail,  a  few  succeed.  By  degrees  they  discovered  that 
the  most  powerful  antidote  against  the  moral  poison 
lay  in  the  character  of  the  operator;  wherever  the 
ethical  investigator  had  led  a  nobler  life,  the  cure  was 
more  rapid  and  effective;  wherever  the  attendant  had 
more  development  of  intellect  than  of  lofty  moral  prin- 
ciple, the  patient  lingered  and  often  relapsed.  Yet 
there  were  other  prophylactics  of  a  more  material  kind 
that  greatly  aided  in  the  recovery  of  the  patient. 
Hygienic  measures  and  courses  were  prescribed  for 
preventing  the  recurrence  of  the  disorder;  and  at  last 
something  not  unlike  a  science  of  the  art  of  moral 
healing  seemed  to  emerge  out  of  the  empiricism  and 
chaos. 

This  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  an  ethical 


Ethics  595 

sanatorium,  which  was  in  reality  a  children's  hospital 
for  obstinate  moral  diseases.  No  mature  or  half-mature 
Limanoran  had  for  ages  shown  symptoms  of  a  relapse 
upon  any  ancestral  or  barbaric  ethical  code,  and  the 
mild  moral  ailments  lasting  for  only  a  few  hours  or 
days  were  easily  managed  by  the  parents  or  proparents. 
Gentle  influence,  or  at  most  gentle  discipline,  was  all 
that  was  needed  to  dislodge  the  evil  spirit,  or  if  that 
did  not  succeed,  magnetic  remedies  were  applied  to  the 
part  of  the  nervous  centres  affected. 

Should  the  moral  defect  still  hold  out  obstinately 
against  all  remedies,  the  patient  was  removed  to  the 
hospital  for  treatment.  There  were  collected  together 
as  moral  physicians  and  nurses  the  wisest  and  noblest 
personalities  of  the  race,  who  applied  all  their  therapeu- 
tic power  to  the  centre  that  was  supposed  to  be  the 
source  of  the  disease.  But  the  centre  had  been  scien- 
tifically examined  and  fixed  by  the  ethical  investigators, 
who  reproduced  the  parts  affected  and  their  symptoms 
in  greatly  magnified  forms,  and  suggested  the  various 
physical  remedies  that  would  aid  the  sanative  influ- 
ences of  the  physicians  and  nurses.  The  child  was 
isolated  from  circumstances  and  conditions  tending  to 
reinforce  the  moral  poison;  and  his  better  nature  was 
invigorated  and  encouraged,  so  that  it  might  be  able  to 
throw  off  the  germs  of  the  malady. 

Within  recent  times  the  ethical  investigators  had 
made  great  advances  in  their  science.  The  immediate 
stimulus  of  the  progress  was  accidental,  as  so  often  had 
been  the  case,  or  in  other  words  it  had  come  from  out- 
side ^  their  recognised  spheres  of  causation.  An  epi- 
demic of  deceit  had  almost  simultaneously  seized  upon 
the  children  of  the  community,  in  spite  of  the  solitary 
method  of  training  adopted.     Boys  and  girls  who  had 


596  Limanora 

not  seen  each  other  for  months  were  on  the  same  day 
impelled  to  habits  of  concealment,  even  when  they  were 
in  the  stage  of  development  that  corresponded  to  the 
ravening  fury  and  open  warfare  of  the  barbaric  past. 
Nothing  in  their  ordinary  methods  of  research  could 
furnish  a  cause  for  the  outbreak.  They  searched  the 
general  condition  of  the  previous  moral  health  of  the 
children,  and  found  it  excellent.  None  of  the  patients 
had  come  near  each  other  for  long  periods;  none  of 
them  had  shown  any  symptoms  of  the  disorder  before 
the  epidemic  had  appeared. 

They  were  driven  to  some  hypothesis  quite  outside 
the  limits  of  their  usual  sphere,  for  they  saw  that  there 
was  something  uncommon  in  the  occurrence.  Begin- 
ning to  suspect  that  the  germs  of  the  disease  had  come 
from  other  regions,  as  had  so  often  happened,  they  in- 
creased the  powers  of  their  magnifying  apparatus  by 
means  of  photography,  and  invented  more  delicate  aids 
to  the  investigation  of  the  nerve-centres  than  they  had 
ever  used  before.  On  watching  the  part  in  which  they 
had  localised  the  physical  equivalent  of  deceit,  they 
found  signs  that  the  presence  of  the  minutest  foreign 
life  was  disturbing  the  nerve-tissues.  In  the  moving 
microscopic  photographs  and  electrographs  of  the 
centre  they  could  detect  the  growth  of  a  new  type  of 
microbe,  inflaming  and  interfering  with  the  nerves  of 
the  part.  Afterwards  they  found  some  specimens 
of  the  disturbers  in  the  atmosphere,  aud  were  able  to 
cultivate  them  for  investigation  and  experiment.  Soon 
they  accumulated  a  large  enough  quantity  of  the  debris 
to  apply  to  the  cultures  themselves,  and  in  every  case 
it  seemed  to  prove  a  steriliser;  what  the  minute  life 
had  used  up  and  thrown  off  acted  as  a  poison  and  de- 
stroyer.    By  means  of  the  medicine  that  they  manufac- 


Ethics  597 

tured  from  it  they  were  able  to  annihilate  or  eject  the 
disturbers  of  the  nerve-centre  of  truth  in  the  patients. 
But  in  curing  the  part  affected  the  moral  equilibrium 
of  the  children  was  upset.  The  bio-chemical  families 
applied  themselves  to  the  problem,  and  soon  succeeded 
in  isolating  the  medicative  elements  from  the  injurious. 

Thus  a  new  and  efficient  method  of  treatment  was 
introduced  into  the  ethical  sanatorium.  Chambers 
were  reserved  for  sublimating  the  drug,  and  thither 
children  were  sent  if  any  obstinate  form  of  deceit  ap- 
peared in  them.  And  by  means  of  the  sterilised  form 
of  it  they  fumigated  the  child's  quarters  in  any  house- 
hold, whenever  signs  of  a  return  of  the  epidemic  ap- 
peared. The  ethical  investigators  proceeded  on  the  new 
path  thus  opened  up  to  them  and  were  in  time  able  to 
describe  and  classify  the  microbes  of  moral  epidemics 
and  their  antidotes.  After  some  years'  toil  they  sup- 
plied the  ethical  sanatorium  with  a  complete  scientific 
pharmacopoeia,  for  at  least  all  the  grosser  forms  of  vice, 
all  the  offences  against  the  moral  codes  that  had  been 
atavised  or  thrown  into  the  ancestral  past. 

The  nerve-centres  concerned  with  these  offences  were 
easy  to  find  and  localise;  so  the  minute  life  that  inter- 
fered with  such  centres  was  studied  till  it  yielded  its 
secrets  to  science.  But  it  was  a  more  difficult  task  for 
the  new  scientific  art  of  therapeutic  ethics  to  trace  out 
the  physiology  of  the  newer  moral  codes  and  to  dis- 
cover a  cure  for  the  maladies  which  hindered  their 
complete  adoption  into  the  Limanoran  human  system. 
The  moral  offences  they  had  now  to  deal  with  were 
sluggishness  of  the  higher  faculties  of  man,  acts  that 
dragged  the  thoughts  downwards,  dominance  of  a 
physical  need,  concessions  to  mere  nature  as  against 
the  highest  knowledge  of  nature,  excesses  of  emotion 


598  Limanora 

or  disturbances  of  the  mental  equilibrium  by  passion, 
devotion  to  the  past,  superstition,  stagnancy  of  belief, 
efforts  to  base  belief  on  unreason  or  ignorance,  faith  in 
a  moral  code  as  the  terminus  of  human  ethics,  or  in  a 
state  of  human  scientific  knowledge  that  was  omnis- 
cient. Step  by  step  the  ethical  investigators  found 
their  way  to  the  nerve-centre  that  was  disturbed  when 
any  one  of  these  faults  appeared  in  a  man;  and  after 
long  years  of  research  and  experiment  they  were  able 
to  add  to  their  pharmacopoeia  the  antidotes  to  these 
maladies  or  weaknesses. 

They  would  have  thought  the  basis  of  existence 
irrational,  if  they  had  persuaded  themselves  that  ethics 
was  unprogressive,  whilst  all  other  things  in  the  uni- 
verse were  subject  to  the  law  of  evolution.  A  moral 
code  could  be  as  easily  superseded  as  a  polity  or  a  type 
of  society.  At  one  time  no  race  could  see  beyond  the 
moral  codes  of  barbaric  life  that  recognised  no  evil  in 
treachery  or  revenge.  Some  at  last  advanced  to  the 
moral  code  of  the  warrior,  which  based  every  rule  of 
life  upon  the  idea  of  honour.  Later  still  the  civilised 
races  of  the  world  adopted  the  moral  ideal  of  the  priest, 
which  could  find  nothing  good  beyond  the  limits  of 
its  special  ecclesiastical  forms.  One  by  one  these  had 
been  antiquated  and  Limanoran  civilisation  had  now 
found  as  the  basis  for  its  moral  code  the  principle  of 
the  cosmos,  that  of  evolution.  To  advance,  to  raise  his 
system  higher,  to  evolve  its  possibilities,  was  the  first 
duty  of  man  as  understood  by  the  Limanorans  of  this 
later  age.  To  see  beyond  their  present  horizon  was 
their  ideal.  They  would  rather  march  forward  into 
the  darkness  than  stand  still  or  retrograde  in  light. 
To  know  clearly  and  definitely  the  possibilities  that  lay 


Ethics  599 

before  them,  and  to  be  able  to  choose  the  best  of  them 
was  the  primary  and  fundamental  maxim  of  their  ethi- 
cal code.     All  others  were  corollaries  of  it. 

If  they  had  any  unreasoned,  unreasoning,  and  au- 
thoritative monitor  within  them  making  for  all  that  was 
right,  in  short  any  conscience,  it  was  now  the  prophetic 
voice  of  the  ideals  that  they  were  still  to  reach.  Ages 
before  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  voice  out  of  the  past.  Before 
the  great  purgation  of  the  island  half  of  their  education 
and  literature  had  been  based  upon  the  literatures  of 
two  ancient  peoples,  to  whose  conquests  and  legacies 
of  energy  and  thought  they  had  fallen  heir.  They  now 
shuddered  at  the  pollution  that  these  used  to  com- 
municate to  the  minds  of  their  youth.  The  ethics 
running  through  them  belonged  to  a  stage  of  civilisa- 
tion that  had  been  long  antiquated,  and  embodied 
ideals  now  far  beneath  them.  The  heroes  and  wisest 
men  were  recorded  in  them  as  having  done  deeds  with 
applause  that  the  most  atavistic  of  their  children  would 
be  ashamed  to  mention.  Whatever  wisdom  or  noble- 
ness they  might  otherwise  teach,  it  would  be  completely 
neutralised  by  the  taint  of  vices  which  were  approved 
or  counted  as  venial  peccadilloes.  To  submit  their 
youth  to  such  pollution  for  the  sake  of  the  problematic 
refinement  they  might  gain  from  the  books  was  to  do 
the  greatest  wrong  a  civilisation  could  commit,  to  pro- 
strate its  own  ideals  before  those  of  a  vanished  and  bar- 
baric past.  Out  with  the  exiles  went  every  trace  of 
those  old  literatures;  and  the  isle  of  liars  and  the  isle 
of  lechers  had  taken  them  to  their  bosoms,  with  the 
result  that  they  had  to  adopt  lying  and  impurity  as 
their  standards  of  life.  To  return  upon  any  past  was 
to  reject  with  recklessness  the  advantages  that  it  had 
gained  and  handed  on  to  the  centuries  between.     But 


6oo  Limanora 

to  adopt  with  deliberateness  a  past  steeped  in  the  gross- 
est impurities,  and  honouring  intrigue  and  hypocrisy, 
was  to  commit  moral  suicide. 

It  was  only  in  the  immature  that  conscience,  or  the 
future  invisibly  shepherding  the  present,  was  either 
needed  or  existent.  They  had  pitfalls  and  dangers 
out  of  the  savage  past  to  avoid,  and  an  unreasoned 
instinct  was  an  essential  to  their  development  as  an 
ever-present  guide,  authoritatively  bending  their  steps 
this  way  and  that.  This  moral  and  instinctive  antici- 
pation of  the  future,  though  mysterious  in  its  origin  to 
the  young  whose  conduct  it  moulded,  was  in  reality  no 
mystery;  it  came  from  the  magnetism  of  the  wisest  and 
best  of  the  elders;  the  ideal  these  saw  in  front  of  them 
and  held  out  as  the  immediate  goal  of  the  race,  passed 
sympathetically  and  magnetically  into  the  moral  and 
intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  island.  The  mature 
knew  whence  the  influence  came,  and  grasped  it  ration- 
ally. But  it  was  round  the  young  as  a  subtle  inspira- 
tion and  halo  that  came  they  knew  not  whence;  nor 
dared  they  question  it  or  disobey  its  injunctions,  lest 
some  evil  should  entrap  them.  When  they  came  to 
maturity,  they  learned  the  origin  of  the  mysterious 
voice  within,  not  to  disregard  its  monitions,  but  to 
reason  them  out  and  revise  them  by  the  light  of  the 
advancing  ideals  of  the  race  and  to  know  that  it  changes 
and  grows  like  everything  in  the  cosmos. 

One  of  the  first  aims  and  maxims  of  their  polity  was 
to  let  their  citizens  on  reaching  maturity  think  all 
through  their  lives  for  themselves.  The  first  guar- 
anty of  this  freedom  was  rationality,  the  power  of 
tracing  back  every  act  and  feeling  and  thought  to 
the  primary  principles  of  existence,  combined  with  the 
.sense  of  responsibility  for  the  future  of  the  race.    There 


Ethics  60 1 

was  no  repression,  no  prohibition;  the  prerogative  and 
duty  of  ever}-  man  was  to  make  himself  fit  to  be  a  law 
to  himself.  In  former  ages  their  ancestors  used  to  talk 
of  the  innocence  of  childhood;  all  that  they  meant 
was  unconsciousness  of  conventional  emotions,  ideas, 
phrases,  and  habits,  and  superiority  to  them.  They 
smiled  at  it  as  a  temporary  stage  from  which  they 
would  soon  pass  into  the  restrictions  of  manhood  and 
womanhood ;  and  only  the  greatest  sages  were  able  to 
work  themselves  free  again  from  conventions  so  far  as 
to  be  moral  and  noble  and  yet  to  have  the  innocence, 
the  unperturbed  vision  and  candour  of  the  earliest 
years.  But  now  all  men  and  women  retained  the  naive 
openness  of  childhood  and  its  artless  simplicity;  for 
they  had  no  conventions  to  trammel  the  freedom  of 
spiritual  movement,  no  prohibitions  to  make  the  will 
shrink  from  origination  or  action.  Even  when  child- 
hood or  youth  was  checked  in  some  mistaken  career, 
the  check  was  veiled  in  persuasion  and  reasoning  and 
a  vision  of  the  truth.  The  atmosphere  of  freedom  was 
an  absolute  essential  for  the  full  development  of  indi- 
viduality; and  the  guaranty  that  this  freedom  would 
never  pass  into  license  was  the  fact  that  every  mature 
man  and  woman  had  a  noble  aim,  and  that  the  magnet- 
ism of  the  race  was  around  everyone.  None  had  to 
obtrude  the  claims  of  his  personality  upon  others;  and 
none  was  abashed  by  a  sense  of  despair,  or  the  feeling 
of  insignificance.  Humility  was  a  virtue  needing  no 
conscious  cultivation;  there  was  no  occasion  for  its  ap- 
pearance, for  the  place  and  merits  of  everyone  were 
accurately  gauged  and  acknowledged  by  all.  It  was 
only  the  insignificance  of  all  humanity  against  the  in- 
finite, of  the  life  of  this  world  against  cosmic  periods, 
that  deeply  impressed  them,  and  rendered  them  weary 


602  Limanora 

of  efforts  so  feeble  as  those  of  human  life.  But  the 
mood  was  brief  in  such  sanguine  temperaments  and 
agile  natures.  Action  they  knew  to  be  exhilaration 
and  health  and  the  building  up  of  tissue  and  faculty. 

All  they  wished  to  be  sure  of  was  that  the  action 
was  to  lead  forward.  The  test  of  its  morality  was  this: 
did  it  make  the  human  system  progress  ?  How  far  did 
it  tend  to  make  the  future  better  than  the  present? 
Whether  a  thing  was  pleasant  or  not  for  the  moment, 
had  no  influence  upon  their  choice  of  courses  of  action. 
That  had  been  the  motive  and  guide  of  the  barbarous 
past,  the  artist  of  its  conduct,  the  creator  of  its  charac- 
ter. The  civilisation  of  other  periods  and  races  had 
meant  only  the  development  of  needs.  And  the  pure 
savage  is  ever  superior  to  civilised  man  in  this  sense; 
with  his  minimum  of  needs  and  the  wherewithal  to 
satisfy  them  wherever  he  may  find  himself,  he  is  not  so 
localised  as  even  the  wealthiest  and  most  cultured  man 
of  the  most  luxurious  civilisations  who  is  tied  to  his 
property  and  investments,  and  is  miserable  unless  in 
the  one  or  two  cities  where  he  can  indulge  his  taste  for 
luxury  to  the  full.  There  was  no  such  thing  as  luxury 
in  Limanora;  everything  that  was  brought  into  being 
was  essential  for  advance,  for  the  final  aim  of  the  life. 
Not  needs  but  ultimate  ends  gave  them  their  point  of 
view,  not  desires  but  means,  not  rights  but  duties.  If 
there  was  anything  that  could  stir  them  to  greater 
eagerness,  it  was  the  prospect  of  more  work  for  the 
good  of  others;  if  anything  could  be  looked  upon  as  a 
luxury  amongst  them,  it  was  a  surfeit  of  work  that  con- 
templated a  widening  of  the  racial  horizon.  To  serve 
the  future  of  all  was  their  deepest  longing.  Far  into 
the  savage  past  had  faded  the  idea  of  servitude;  and, 
as  they  looked  into  history,  there  was  nothing  they 


Ethics  603 

were  more  thankful  for  than  the  disappearance  of  such 
a  necessity;  for  the}'  considered  the  servant,  especially 
if  slave,  the  despot  of  his  master  in  moulding  and  pan- 
dering to  his  needs  and  whims,  and  an  evil  despot  too, 
as  less  advanced  and  less  cultivated. 

Among  the  things  they  most  deeply  abhorred  was 
despotism.  And  the  worst  despotism  of  all,  they  held, 
was  the  social,  that  which  is  exercised  daily  and  hourly, 
and  from  the  vantage-ground  of  proximity ;  the  narrow 
scope  and  limited  horizon  make  it  all  the  more  intense. 
The  most  accursed  of  despotisms  is  the  system  of  espion- 
age; it  wrecks  every  chance  of  freedom  and  crushes 
originality,  turning  the  race  back  into  crawling  venom- 
ous things.  It  is  a  vain  attempt  at  complete  spiritual 
repression  and  feebly  assumes  omniscience  and  omni- 
presence on  the  part  of  the  despots.  Its  only  chance 
of  success  is  a  spiritual  society  disciplined  like  an  army 
and  ruled  by  nothing  but  loyalty  to  its  superiors  who 
base  their  authority  on  the  assumption  of  intercourse 
with  supernatural  omniscience  and  omnipresence;  and 
its  only  chance  of  continuance  is  grovelling  prostration 
of  all  its  subjects  and  possible  critics,  in  abject  fear  of 
unknown  terror  and  of  spies  in  the  very  precincts  of 
the  heart,  who  can  hear  and  interpret  its  every  beat. 
That  was  one  of  their  hells,  which  they  occasionally 
brought  before  their  imaginations  in  order  to  warn 
them  against  minute  supervision  and  interference.  It 
was  this  that  urged  them  on  to  complete  transparency 
of  nature,  so  that  their  inmost  thoughts  and  feelings 
might  be  open  to  all.  Ever  since  the  liars  had  been 
thrust  forth,  one  of  the  immediate  goals  of  their  civilisa- 
tion had  become  absolute  truthfulness.  Now  that  this 
had  been  attained,  a  further  goal  was  complete  limpid- 
ity of  the  human  system.     The  wise  elders  had  already 


604  Limanora 

been  able  to  interpret  what  passed  in  the  heart  or  brain 
of  a  Limanoran ;  now  the  aim  was  to  make  the  sensuous 
garment  of  the  soul  diaphanous  to  the  magnetic  sense, 
if  not  to  the  eyes  of  all.  Of  nothing  in  his  whole  sys- 
tem must  a  man  be  ashamed,  before  he  could  endure 
such  continuous  confessional  to  his  fellows,  and  it  was 
towards  this  goal  that  every  Limanoran  was  now  con- 
sciously working. 

The  constant  inspections  and  examinations  by  the 
elders  might  seem  to  conflict  with  this  horror  of  espion- 
age and  spiritual  despotism.  But  these  were  voluntary 
on  the  part  of  mature  Limanorans;  it  was  one  of  their 
recurring  pleasures  to  be  able  to  submit  their  tissues 
and  faculties  to  the  wise  observation  of  the  elders,  and 
to  gain  the  advantage  of  their  experience.  Had  it 
been  felt  as  a  despotism,  it  would  have  been  abandoned 
at  once.  With  children  and  the  immature  it  was  a 
matter  of  discipline;  they  were  in  the  pre-purgatiou 
stages  of  Limanoran  histor)r,  and  had  to  be  in  pupillage 
and  under  authority.  As  soon  as  they  were  able  to 
keep  step  with  the  advancing  civilisation,  or  in  other 
words  to  be  a  law  to  themselves,  they  were  allowed  to 
walk  alone  and  without  the  trammels  of  guidance.  It 
was  the  strenuous  aim  of  the  elders  and  guides  of  the 
community  to  keep  the  atmosphere  of  thought  free. 
They  were  constantly  reviewing  and  revising  the  end 
and  aim  of  existence  in  the  light  of  the  new  develop- 
ments of  thought  and  science;  hence  its  form  never 
became  a  hard  dogma.  They  believed  in  ultimate 
truth,  but  knew  that  nothing  short  of  omniscience 
could  attain  it.  They  were  now  and  again  getting 
glimpses  of  it,  but  fought  shy  of  expressing  it  in  words, 
for  everyone  would  know  it  to  be  only  a  provisional 
expression.     Language  itself  was  a  shifting  mirage  of 


Ethics  605 

the  mind,  dependent  on  the  point  of  view  for  its  mean- 
ing and  even  existence;  and  one  of  the  most  constant 
duties  of  the  community  was  to  define  and  clarify  it, 
and  to  free  it  from  its  ever-growing  opaqueness  or 
nebulosity,  and  the  fallacies  that  haunted  it.  One 
thing  they  never  hesitated  about,  but  grasped  with  un- 
erring instinct;  and  that  was  the  goal  that  they  kept 
before  them,  or  in  other  words  the  advance  they  were 
eager  to  make.  They  hated  all  Jesuitry,  knowing  that 
it  meant  the  suppression  of  spiritual  freedom  by  what 
merely  professed  to  be  progressive  and  good,  and  the 
obscuration  of  spiritual  truth  in  clouds  of  subtlety. 
Nothing  that  was  evil,  they  held  firmly,  could  lead 
ultimately  to  good;  nothing  that  was  retrograde  could 
in  the  end  be  progress. 

They  had  learned  from  the  revolutions  of  their  past 
how  snaky  and  tortuous  are  the  ways  of  deceit;  and 
the  first  sure  sign  of  its  triumphant  success  is  the  bold 
adoption  of  the  doctrine  that  good  men  may  do  evil, 
provided  their  aim  is  good.  Under  this  the  liars  shel- 
tered themselves  for  ages  before  they  were  exiled. 
The  era  of  the  history  of  the  island  that  filled  them 
most  with  shrinking  and  loathing  was  that  of  the 
struggle  with  the  various  forms  of  deceit.  The  first 
lesson  in  the  valley  of  memories  was  drawn  from  this 
division  of  their  annals;  they  filled  their  youth  with 
hatred  and  scorn  of  untruth  and  hypocrisy;  no  firm  step 
could  be  taken  in  education  till  this  had  become  a  deeply 
rooted  feeling  in  their  natures,  and  nothing  awakened 
it  so  well  as  the  study  of  this  struggle  with  the  liars. 
But  they  never  taught  any  subject  merely  from  books 
or  records;  everything,  even  history  and  its  lessons, 
was  made  practical  and  living.     Deceit,  for  instance, 


606  Limanora 

was  traced  back  to  its  sources  in  nature,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  getting  rid  of  it  was  revealed  by  finding  it  so 
wide  spread  in  the  lower  ranks  of  life.  Mimicry  or 
involuntary  deceit  was  investigated  all  through  plant 
and  animal  life,  and  it  was  found  to  be  more  prevalent 
the  lower  the  investigators  went  in  vital  organisms. 
Their  loathing  of  it  as  a  deliberate  adoption  amongst 
human  beings  grew  deeper  as  they  saw  that  in  the 
animal  world  it  belonged  either  to  incompetence  or 
rapacity.  The  prey  mimicked  the  form  and  colour  of 
another  species  that  was  loathsome  to  its  enemy  in 
order  to  avoid  his  grasp;  unconsciously  the  mimicry 
spread,  for  only  those  members  of  the  attractive  species 
which  were  like  the  repellent  species  escaped  and  pro- 
pagated. Or  the  spoiler  mimicked  the  form  and  colour 
of  a  species  that  was  friendly  or  neutral  to  its  victim, 
and  only  those  members  of  the  species  similar  to  the 
unfeared  kind  succeeded  in  catching  enough  of  their 
favourite  food  to  survive  and  hand  on  their  nature  to  a 
posterity. 

It  was  the  same  in  the  higher  life  of  human  self- 
consciousness  and  will;  only  here  intention  and  de- 
liberateness  entered  in  and  turned  mimicry  into  deceit. 
Wherever  hypocrisy  existed  it  was  a  sure  sign  of  a 
vast  number  of  incompetent  and  feeble,  who  made  an 
easy  quarry  to  the  villain,  and  of  the  vigour  of  a  cun- 
ning minority,  who  often  found  it  difficult  to  entrap. 
Diplomacy  and  convention  are  the  deliberate  mimicry 
of  the  predatory  section  of  a  race  or  of  its  gullible  sec- 
tion. When  once  the  Limanorans  had  purged  the 
island  of  the  liars,  the}'  had  to  prevent  the  propagation 
of  the  feeble  and  incompetent;  for  they  knew  that,  as 
long  as  these  existed  in  a  community,  there  would  per- 
sist the  more  futile  forms  of  deceit.     After  that  first 


Ethics  607 

purgation,  the  weak,  though  retained  in  the  island,  had 
to  abandon  family  life;  they  were  provided  with  the 
means  that  made  existence  easy  and  pleasant  in  order 
that  they  might  not  resort  to  their  only  method  of  sur- 
vival; and  in  a  generation  the  problem  of  hypocrisy 
had  disappeared. 

It  was  then  that  the  idrovamolan  was  invented  and 
came  into  use  in  education.     Having  driven  out  the 
hated  vice,  they  found  that  there  was  still  the  need  of 
impressing  its  evil  results  upon  the  minds  of  the  matur- 
ing youth,  just  as  it  was  necessary  even  yet  to  study 
the  diseases  that  had  disappeared  for  generations  from 
their  midst  in  order  to  be   able  to  cope  with  them, 
should  they  ever  be  reintroduced  through  their  com- 
munication with  other  atmospheres.     But  they  knew 
the  unreality  of  teaching  anything  in  a  merely  theoreti- 
cal way;  they  felt  that  lecturing  and  sermonising  and 
the  mere  reading  of  history  would  give  them  no  such 
grasp  of  the  vice  and  its  evils  as  would  living,  acting 
things.     The  idrovamolan  with  its  telescopic,  telacous- 
tic,  and  telemagnetic  powers  came  to  their  assistance  in 
this   difficulty.      By  its  help  parents  and  proparents 
were  able  to  bring  the  youths  into  the  very  presence  of 
the   loathed   deceit   without   submitting  them   to  the 
chance  of  contagion.     They  turned  the  object-tubes  of 
the  wonderful  instrument  upon  Aleofane  and  its  so- 
ciety ;  and  through  them  they  saw  and  heard  and  felt 
men  like  insects  mimic  and  like  stinging  worms  crawl 
and  diplomatise,  lie  and  cheat,  still  with  the  worship  of 
reality  and  sincerity  and  truth  upon  their  lips.     There 
they  noted  the  growth  of  the  most  offensive  form  of  the 
vice.     The  weak  learned  it    for  protection,  flattering 
the  great  and  grovelling  in  the  dust  before  them  whilst 
they  cursed  them  in  their  hearts,  and  all  in  order  that 


608  Limanora 

some  favour  might  perhaps  be  flung  like  a  bone  to  a 
dog.  Having  learned  the  vicious  art  in  this  cringing 
fashion,  the  feeble  were  seen  to  march  off  with  the 
proud  gait  and  the  conceit  of  adepts  and  use  it  like 
brigands  on  the  still  feebler.  This  combination  of  in- 
competence and  unscrupulousness  was  the  final  curse 
of  a  civilisation  that  had  taken  deceit  to  its  bosom. 
The  whole  of  the  energy  of  the  race  was  spent  in  simu- 
lation and  dissimulation.  Every  vice  simulated  its 
antagonistic  virtue;  even  virtue  simulated  the  vigour 
and  arrogance  of  vice.  The  Unianoran  youth  needed 
no  more  teaching  on  the  evils  of  hypocrisy.  They  rose 
from  the  idrovamolan  with  an  intense  loathing  for  all 
forms  of  deceit,  so  impressive  was  the  drama  they  saw 
enacted  in  Aleofane.  Even  what  seemed  innocent  mim- 
icry they  shrank  from,  seeing  it  universally  employed  as 
the  means  of  cheating  in  that  island  of  liars  ;  mimicry 
they  were  encouraged  to  eschew ;  for  as  surel)T  as  the  art 
was  mastered,  it  was  used  for  mean  or  foul  purposes  at 
some  time  or  other,  either  for  envy  and  jealousy  and 
scorn,  or  in  order  to  lay  traps,  sometimes  for  the  strong, 
but  chiefly  for  the  weak.  Even  in  art  all  mimicry  was 
avoided,  for  there  it  betrayed  feebleness  or  lack  of  in- 
dividuality. The  existence  of  mimicr}'  in  the  animal 
world  was  the  mark  of  degeneracy  upon  terrestrial  life. 
It  argued  the  wide  domain  of  feebleness  and  rapacity, 
and  the  dominance  of  the  passion  for  mere  existence. 
Wherever  it  was  wide-spread,  it  meant  the  abeyance  of 
progress  and  of  eagerness  for  progress.  Mimicry  is  the 
sterilising  process  of  faculty  and  power.  Origination  is 
the  principle  of  fertility,  of  stimulus  to  progress. 

Whatsoever  dallied  with  an  outgrown  principle  or 
element  was  immoral.  Mere  copying  of  what  had 
been  already  attained  and  was  about  to  be  left  behind 


Ethics  609 

or  used  as  a  stepping-stone  to  something  better  was 
neighbour  to  evil.  Morality  is  the  effort  to  adapt  con- 
duct and  ideals  to  the  new  vistas  opened  up  into  the 
future  by  an  advance  already  achieved;  and  it  is  ever 
being  bribed  or  throttled  by  what  is  outworn.  Evil  is 
the  past  which  has  become  so  obsolete  and  is  yet  so 
living  as  to  be  obstructive.  What  has  been  outgrown 
has  ever  its  allies  among  living  elements,  and  its  advo- 
cates in  every  mixed  and  unpurified  race.  Especially 
is  this  the  case  where  there  are  fixed  codes  or  creeds, 
and  along  with  them  professions  organised  to  preserve 
and  continue  their  sway.  The  world  is  constantly  see- 
ing the  spectacle  of  a  nation  or  race  or  species  coming 
to  a  standstill  after  centuries  of  brilliant  progress,  and 
getting  fossilised  in  a  certain  stage  of  its  advance; 
there  it  remains  for  generation  after  generation  as  if 
alive,  yet  practically  dead  for  all  purposes  of  develop- 
ment, like  a  fl)'  in  amber.  This  dead  stop  is  due  to  the 
dominance  of  some  code  or  creed  that  seemed  to  em- 
body the  spirit  of  its  greatest  success;  the  nation  or 
race  sought  to  secure  for  ever  to  itself  the  advantages 
of  the  ethical  or  spiritual  methods  that  had  achieved 
for  it  its  most  brilliant  results,  bj'  fixing  them  unalter- 
ably for  all  time,  with  their  official  guardians  to  protect 
them  from  change;  so  that  which  had  given  such  vigor- 
ous life  and  development  for  a  time  became  a  prison- 
house  and  grave.  Only  the  most  tremendous  revolution 
and  cataclysm  could  burst  the  walls  of  the  tomb,  tear 
off  its  grave-clothes,  and  release  its  spirit  for  new  con- 
quests. Sometimes  a  nation  seems  to  fossilise  the  creed 
or  polity  that  first  gave  energy  to  its  life,  yet  at  the 
same  time  grows  and  develops  spasmodically.  It  has 
only  made  pretence  of  having  fixed  this  code  for  all 
time,  whilst  the  living  spirit  of  it  escapes  and  follows 


6io  Limanora 

its  own  course  in  freedom ;  it  has  periodically  to  return 
to  its  pretended  prison  and  tomb,  and  to  reconcile  by 
Jesuitry  and  in  makeshift  way  the  two  methods  of  life 
which  have  come  to  differ  so  widely.  Then  it  flees 
again  into  the  struggle  of  existence  and  gradually 
ignores  even  the  new  versions  of  the  old  code,  till  the 
divorce  becomes  too  obtrusive  to  escape  attention,  and 
the  process  of  reinterpretation  of  the  antiquated  creed 
begins  again.  This  has  been  a  common  enough  mode 
of  advance  in  the  history  of  the  world.  But  it  is 
fraught  with  incalculable  risks.  It  induces  a  habit  of 
self-deceit  and  hypocrisy,  and  the  nation  or  race  ultim- 
ately makes  a  tomb  and  prison-house  for  its  spirit  out 
of  its  own  falsities  and  self-delusions. 

Advance  like  this,  the  Limanorans  held,  was  no  true 
advance.  They  would  have  no  part  or  lot  in  fixity  of 
methods  or  codes,  for  whatever  became  fixed  grew 
thereby  evil  and  obstructed  development  and  advance 
to  higher  points  of  view.  They  had  only  to  look  into 
their  history  to  see  how  every  new  step  antiquated  some 
universally  accepted  belief  or  maxim.  Not  so  many 
ages  ago  a  crudely  philanthropic  spirit  was  considered 
one  of  the  surest  signs  of  advancing  virtue,  in  fact  one 
of  the  noblest  of  the  virtues.  Now  it  was  considered 
distinctly  immoral  to  philanthropise  without  taking 
care  to  foresee  the  results  of  the  philanthropy.  Liman- 
orans used  to  go  out  into  the  archipelagos  and  try  to 
convert  the  barbarians  to  the  special  code  or  creed 
then  in  vogue.  Instead  of  helping  on  the  human  race, 
it  actually  stopped  the  development  of  a  section  of  it; 
for  the  adoption  of  a  creed  and  its  symbols  and  rites 
and  phrases  far  in  advance  of  an}'  possible  civilisation 
the}'  could  reach  only  made  the  savages— whose  virtues 


Ethics  6n 

had  hitherto  been  at  least  genuine — conventional,  false, 
and  hypocritical;  whilst  the  apostles  left  thousands  of 
their  own  countrymen  at  home  stagnant  or  retrogress- 
ive. It  soon  came  to  be  acknowledged  that  inter- 
course with  inferior  civilisations,  even  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  them,  lowered  the  moral  standard  of  the 
missionaries,  whilst  failing  in  its  original  motive. 
Much  of  the  philanthropy  that  began  at  home  was 
found  to  be  no  less  obstructive  and  immoral.  It  fed 
and  clothed  the  poor  and  improvident,  and  thus  helped 
to  slay  and  bury  the  only  habit  that  could  save  them 
out  of  their  slough,  the  habit  of  measuring  every  step 
they  took,  and  seeing  whither  it  led;  and  it  helped  to 
perpetuate  the  evil;  for  the  ready  yet  limited  supplies 
combined  with  the  improvidence  to  make  them  breed 
like  the  lower  animals,  and  the  race  of  paupers  and 
unprogressive  was  inordinately  multiplied.  The  same 
feeble  and  immoral  philanthropy  opposed  all  attempts 
to  stop  the  multiplication  of  the  diseased  and  semi- 
criminal,  and  had  to  increase  the  armies  of  doctors  and 
guardians  of  the  peace  every  generation.  It  did  well 
to  nurse  the  feeble  in  mind  and  body,  and  to  reduce 
the  penalties  under  which  heredity  had  placed  them; 
but  it  failed  to  see  that  it  was  doing  endless  evil  by 
letting  them  penalise  an  increasing  posterity  with  their 
own  punishment.  Not  till  it  was  branded  as  the  worst 
of  immoralities  was  such  philanthropy  ended.  This 
had  been  a  distinct  advance  and  a  true  virtue,  when 
it  had  taken  the  place  of  cruelty  and  neglect,  and  when 
there  was  unmeasured  space  on  the  earth  for  the  ex- 
pansion of  population;  but,  once  this  stage  had  been 
passed,  and  the  purgation  crusade  was  proceeding,  it 
became  a  real  plague  and  vice. 

Another  immorality  that  had  once  been  a  virtue  was 


612  Limanora 

the  pursuit  of  beauty  for  its  own  sake.  Men  gave  up 
their  lives  to  the  production  of  beautiful  things  which 
served  no  other  purpose  than  their  own  glory  and  the 
entertainment  of  idle  and  leisured  people.  Others  made 
fortunes  and  devoted  them  to  the  purchase  of  such 
works  of  art,  in  order  that  crowds  might  collect  and 
admire  them,  and  for  a  time  there  was  something  of 
truth  in  the  assertion  that  it  educated  the  taste  of  the 
people.  But  this  was  only  when  the  bulk  of  the  race 
was  unenlightened  and  unprogressive,  and  anything 
that  softened  their  barbarity,  anything  that  drew  their 
thoughts  away  for  even  a  brief  time  from  sordid  cares 
or  cruel  projects  or  mechanical  and  conventional  habits, 
implied  progress  or  a  chance  of  progress.  When  the 
race  had  been  purified,  and  every  eye  was  bent  on  the 
future,  and  every  nerve  strained  toward  some  advance 
in  human  civilisation,  beautiful  things  became  the 
commonest  features  aud  necessities  of  life,  and  beauty 
ceased  to  be  noticed  as  anything  remarkable.  Then 
to  spend  energies  on  producing  what  was  artistic  and 
beautiful  without  serving  any  other  purpose  than  pleas- 
ing was  reckless  extravagance,  aud  by  wasting  what 
should  have  been  expended  upon  the  progress  of  the 
race  was  condemned  as  immoral.  There  was  no  vir- 
tue in  doing  what  everyone  did  by  instinct.  There 
was  positive  vice  in  making  it  the  sole  and  deliberate 
purpose  of  expenditure  of  energy. 

Another  instance  of  a  former  virtue  having  become  a 
vice  was  statesmanship  and  political  patriotism.  At 
one  time  half  the  conspicuous  talent  of  the  race  went 
in  this  direction,  so  greatly  was  it  admired.  And, 
when  there  were  other  races  and  nations  to  diplomatise 
or  struggle  with,  and  one  half  of  the  race  had  to  pro- 
vide for  or  keep  watch  on  the  other  half,  it  is  no  strange 


Ethics  6 1 


3 


thing  that  to  enter  into  the  domain  of  politics  was  con- 
sidered the  noblest  thing  a  man  could  do,  and  love  of 
the  welfare  of  the  country  was  considered  the  noblest 
sentiment  a  man  could  entertain.  The  most  difficult 
problems,  involving,  some  of  them,  the  very  continu- 
ance of  the  race,  occupied  the  attention  of  the  states- 
man and  politician;  what  to  do  with  the  vast  pauper 
class  and  the  still  vaster  fringe  of  the  poverty-stricken 
and  improvident,  how  to  deal  with  the  criminally  in- 
clined, how  to  educate  the  half -savage  denizens  of 
hovels  in  cities  and  even  in  the  open  country,  how  to 
prevent  the  deadlocks  in  industry,  how  to  regulate  the 
labour  market  and  how  to  check  the  recurrent  plagues 
and  famines,  were  questions  that  tasked  the  finest  in- 
tellectual energies  of  the  nation.  What  complicated 
the  answer  was  the  fact  that  the  themes  of  the  discus- 
sions, the  pauper,  the  criminal,  the  improvident,  the 
employer,  the  labourer,  the  plague-stricken,  and  the 
starving  had  all  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try, and  had  to  be  persuaded  that  any  scheme  proposed 
was  to  their  individual  interests.  The  virtue  of  poli- 
tical patriotism  was  streaked  with  loquacity,  conceit, 
self-seeking,  hypocrisy,  corruption,  and  intrigue,  long 
before  it  came  to  be  recognised  as  a  vice.  The  states- 
man and  politician  had  to  make  his  principles  as  inter- 
changeable as  his  coats,  had  to  be  a  master  in  the  art 
of  making  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason,  had  to 
be  skilful  in  lying  without  seeming  to  lie,  had  to  rob 
whilst  putting  on  the  guise  of  self-sacrifice,  had  to 
cringe  and  fawn,  bully  and  overbear,  by  turns,  had  to 
be  an  artist  in  bribing  men  and  in  taking  bribes,  in 
short  had  to  be  the  most  expert  of  the  criminal  classes. 
By  the  time  the  end  came,  none  in  the  list  of  virtues 
had  become  so  like  a  vice  as  patriotism.     The  great 


6  H  Limanora 

purgations  swept  out  all  occasions  for  politics  and 
patriots  in  exiling  all  the  subjects  of  statesmanship. 
Where  there  were  no  paupers  or  criminals,  no  masters 
or  servants,  no  uneducated  or  savage  except  young 
children,  and  no  chance  of  plague  or  famine,  the  oc- 
cupation of  the  statesman  and  politician  vanished. 
Where  every  man  was  taught  to  be  a  law  to  himself, 
legislation  had  no  place.  The  problems  of  most  in- 
choate civilisations  had  gone  into  exile  with  all  the  isms 
that  were  proposed  to  solve  them,  and  all  the  charlatans 
that  proposed  their  solution.  Patriotism  was  now,  like 
breathing,  the  organic  and  unconscious  process  of  every 
mind,  and  not  the  exception  upon  which  anyone  could 
plume  himself.  No  longer  was  it  the  safety  of  the 
country,  or  the  continuance  of  the  race,  or  the  susten- 
ance or  justice  or  criminality  of  part  of  the  people  that 
demanded  conscious  effort,  but  the  advance  of  the 
human  system  in  all.  To  propose  and  argue  legislative 
schemes  for  the  benefit  of  any  section  of  the  race-would 
have  been  accounted  immorality,  if  it  had  not  been 
taken  as  a  symptom  of  atavism  or  mental  disease.  A 
hospital  was  the  certain  fate  of  anyone  who  indulged  in 
political  projects  or  political  eloquence;  the  old  virtue 
had  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  obstructiveness  and 
vice,  and  had  become  one  of  the  tests  of  insanity. 

This  disease  of  politics  rarely  appeared  except 
amongst  the  youthful  and  immature  and  the  methods 
of  driving  out  the  evil  spirit  had  recently  grown  scien- 
tific and  unfaltering.  The  old  plan  of  exiling,  it  was 
now  felt,  had  become  cruel  and  pitiless.  For  in  recent 
generations  the  pace  of  evolution  in  the  race  had  so 
quickened  that  now  even  its  laggards  and  the  breakers 
of  its  moral  law  were  centuries  ahead  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced citizens  of  the  most  advanced  nations  on  the 


Ethics  615 

face  of  the  earth;  and  no  longer  could  they,  if  expatri- 
ated, find  any  to  consort  with.  They  would  have  to 
live  with  men  who,  in  their  eyes,  were  vicious  and 
criminal.  Noola  had  been  the  last  to  be  exiled;  the 
system  was  finally  abandoned  as  inhumane  and  un- 
scientific; and  science  soon  found  methods  of  treatment 
that  were  prompt  and  efficient  in  their  cure  of  all  such 
mental  diseases. 

My  final  instance  of  the  old  virtue  grown  vice  is  of  a 
different  kind.  It  belonged  more  to  the  intellectual 
sphere  than  to  the  practical,  and  seemed  to  me  at  first 
rather  a  mistake  than  a  defect  of  the  nature.  It  was 
the  common  error  of  taking  a  verbal  originality  or  ad- 
vance for  a  real,  a  mere  change  of  name  for  a  change 
in  essence.  In  the  old  times  it  had  been  counted  as  a 
great  merit  to  a  man,  if  he  manufactured  a  new  nom- 
enclature for  any  wide  spread  phase  of  civilisation,  and 
so  gave  the  race  the  sensation  of  dealing  with  some- 
thing novel.  Some  of  the  greatest  heroes  of  philosophy 
and  science  in  the  pre-purgation  ages  of  the  island  had 
owed  their  fame  to  the  substitution  of  fresh  phraseology 
for  what  had  grown  outworn  and  trite,  and  most  of  the 
great  writers  had  done  nothing  more  for  their  fellows 
than  re-illumine  a  linguistic  world  fallen  dull  and  dark. 
Men  grow  sick  of  ideas  that  have  worn  the  same  verbal 
dress  for  a  generation  or  more,  and  hail  as  a  discoverer 
and  benefactor  anyone  who  tricks  them  out  anew;  they 
delight  in  feeling  them  to  be  familiar  old  friends,  whom 
they  have  to  make  no  mental  effort  to  know.  Even  to 
dye  the  old  garments  in  new  imaginative  tints  is  a 
service  they  will  not  readily  forget;  whilst  the  great 
discoverers  and  pioneers  of  the  human  race  have  had 
years  or  ages  of  oblivion  according  to  the  newness  and 
difficulty  of  their  ideas  and  the  distance  beyond  the 


616  Limanora 

common  horizon  they  have  looked  into  the  future. 
The  Iyimanorans  of  old,  like  most  other  men,  abhorred 
having  to  think  out  again  their  creeds  and  ideas,  and 
especially  having  to  reform  them;  and  so  they  stood 
out  lustily  against  every  real  advance  proposed,  and 
shouted  it  down  as  irreverence  or  blasphemy  in  over- 
turning the  old  barriers  and  old  altars.  The  maker  of 
a  new  nomenclature  and  the  tinter  of  the  old  phrase- 
ology pandered  to  this  intellectual  indolence. 

One  of  the  most  striking  results  of  the  new  point  of 
view  after  the  great  purgation  was  the  transformation 
the  fame  of  these  old  scientists  and  philosophers  and 
writers  suffered.  They  began  to  be  execrated  as 
dealers  in  illusions,  as  men  who  fed  the  passion  of  the 
human  race  for  stagnance  or  retrogression  to  monstrous 
proportions.  They  were  thrown  down  from  their  lofty 
pedestals,  and  cast  into  oblivion  for  their  sins  against 
truth  and  reality.  To  seduce  men  from  the  pursuit  of 
truth  by  mere  verbal  jugglery  was  now  counted  no 
mere  mistake,  but  a  heinous  offence  against  morality. 
To  take  as  a  real  discovery  what  was  but  a  new  name 
or  set  of  names  revealed  a  vicious  obliquity  of  mental 
vision,  that  needed  attention  from  the  ethical  phy- 
sicians. This  was  especially  easy  in  the  domain  of 
ethics,  and  the  L,imanorans  were  constantly  on  their 
guard  against  the  delusion  of  accepting  a  change  of 
nomenclature  as  a  moral  advance.  The  elders  carefully 
reviewed  every  stage  of  progress,  lest  it  should  have 
been  in  words  and  phrases.  This  was  the  main  purpose 
of  the  Manora  and  of  the  Imanora,  and  every  month 
linguistic  councils  were  held  to  revise  the  language,  and 
to  throw  out  any  fallacies  and  illusions  it  might  har- 
bour. Every  new  nomenclature  and  phraseology  was 
searched  and  probed,  and  torn  off  the  ideas  that  they 


Ethics  617 

were  meant  to  express,  in  order  to  see  if  there  was  any- 
thing new  underneath  them.  Delusion,  they  had  re- 
solved, they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  in  any 
shape  or  form.  For  delusion  blinded  the  eyes  to  the 
route  they  were  taking,  and  made  them  march  in  a 
circle  or  back  over  the  old  roads  under  the  belief  that 
they  were  advancing  to  what  was  new.  It  was  the 
greatest  foe  to  true  progress,  and  any  man  who  fell  into 
it  revealed  vicious  tendencies,  which  needed  the  minis- 
trations of  the  physicians  and  nurses  in  the  ethical 
sanatorium.  To  take  verbal  ingenuity  for  true  pion- 
eering was  the  most  grievous  offence  against  the 
future  of  the  race. 

The  great  standard  and  test  of  morality  was  pro- 
gress. How  far  will  an  act  or  habit  aid  the  true  de- 
velopment of  the  race  ?  This  was  the  crucial  question 
in  Limanora;  and  in  order  that  it  might  be  answered 
satisfactorily  and  easily  by  any  member  of  the  commun- 
ity, the  council  of  elders  was  careful  to  accommodate  the 
ideals  of  the  race  to  every  advance  made.  It  had  been 
a  rare  thing  in  their  history  to  change  or  add  to  the 
cardinal  instincts  of  morality.  But  this  they  knew  was 
by  no  means  impossible;  and  indeed  they  were  buoyed 
up  with  the  hope  that  the  moral  cosmos  was  still  to 
open  up  new  marvels  like  the  physical  cosmos,  that  in 
fact  the  two  would  ultimately  be  found  to  be  one  when 
looked  at  from  the  final  and  divine  point  of  view. 
There  was  the  strongest  conservatism  in  the  ethical 
phase  of  life;  for  it  is  the  last,  highest,  and  most  com- 
plex development  of  vitality.  The  lower  we  investi- 
gate in  the  animal  world,  the  more  revolutions  and 
transformations  we  see  the  individual  go  through,  the 
more  enslaved  is  it  to  circumstances,   to   locality,   to 


6iS  Limanora 

season,  to  the  moment.  The  higher  we  go,  the  greater 
we  find  the  conservatism,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
greater  the  origination  and  the  adaptability.  In  man 
these  two  conflicting  powers  grow  stronger  side  by  side 
as  he  advances  in  civilisation.  He  retains  features  and 
forms  that  are  outworn  and  useless  longer  than  most  of 
the  higher  animals;  and  yet  he  originates  and  adapts 
himself  and  his  surroundings  with  far  more  ease  and 
swiftness.  In  ethics,  his  last  evolution,  the  conserv- 
atism dominates  the  origination  and  the  advance,  ob- 
scures them  or  makes  them  simulate  its  own  features, 
and  produces  the  belief  that  the  final  maxims  and  cue 
of  morality  have  been  reached  from  the  first.  Ethical 
progress  has  naturally  been  slow,  and  it  is  only  the 
student  of  vast  periods  of  history  and  of  many  nations 
and  races  who  becomes  fully  persuaded  that  there  has 
been  any  change  in  the  point  of  view.  Because  there 
is  not  complete  transformation,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
minuter  and  lower  animals,  it  is  assumed  that  there  is 
no  evolution,  and  that  morality  and  conscience  have 
remained  fixed  quantities,  from  the  beginning  of  his- 
toric times  at  least.  And  the  close  bond  between  ethics 
and  religion  has  assisted  this  dominant  and  delusive 
conservatism  in  its  task.  Each  great  step  in  ethical 
evolution  has  been  claimed  by  religion  as  its  own,  and 
as  resulting  from  its  own  special  revelation  from 
heaven. 

The  Eimanorans  were  quick  to  recognise  that  mor- 
ality must  be  subject  to  growth  and  development,  not 
only  in  the  individual,  but  in  the  race,  and  that  man 
must  gain  higher  ethical  points  of  view  as  he  pro- 
gresses. They  knew  that  many  of  the  finest  impulses 
and  inspirations  towards  progress,  and  especially  ethi- 
cal progress,  had  come  from  beyond  the  earth  and  the 


Ethics  619 

earth's  atmosphere.  But  that  any  age  or  race  could 
have  caught  the  ultimate  ethical  light  from  the  central 
sun  of  the  cosmos  seemed  to  them  after  their  experience 
the  height  of  absurditj\  There  could  be  no  spiritual 
eye  trained  and  developed  enough  to  receive  it.  As 
the  bodily  eye  of  man  is  capable  of  taking  in  only  a 
limited  range  of  rays  of  light,  whilst  an  immense  range 
of  them  above  and  below  its  faculty  either  blind  it  or 
pass  unnoticed,  so  his  spirit  at  any  given  stage  of  its 
development  can  understand  and  accept  ethical  ideas 
only  within  certain  limits;  but,  as  it  progresses,  it  is 
able  to  see  beyond,  and  appreciate  ideas  that  were 
non-existent  to  it  before.  There  is  as  much  difference 
between  the  ethical  comprehension  of  the  modem  Lim- 
anoran  and  that  of  the  most  highly  civilised  European 
as  between  that  of  the  latter  and  the  savage's,  or  as  be- 
tween the  savage's  and  the  pig's;  and  if  they  could 
have  brought  themselves  to  believe  that  they  had  at- 
tained the  fullest  and  the  final  light  upon  morality,  the 
thought  would  have  struck  their  very  hearts  to  stone. 
It  was  this  that  kept  them  from  formulating  their 
morality  or  ethics  in  any  definite  code.  They  knew 
that  a  code  would  soon  petrify  morality  and  itself  be- 
come a  fetich  ignorantly  worshipped,  and,  gathering  to 
it  through  the  ages  the  self-interest  of  its  officials  and 
the  irrational  devotion  of  its  worshippers,  attain  a  de- 
spotism that  could  never  be  broken  or  controlled.  A 
code  issues  in  a  series  of  prohibitions  which  become  a 
boundless  slavery,  and  prohibitions  develop  the  sense 
of  rights  which  dominates  and  obscures  all  sense  of 
duties;  this  keeps  men  hanging  between  savagery  and 
true  civilisation.  The  growing  dominance  of  duty  with 
its  complementary  obscuration  of  rights  is  the  first 
symptom  of  the  approach  of  rapid  ethical  progress.     To 


620  Limanora 

insist  on  one's  rights  imprisons  the  soul  in  the  living 
sepulture  of  selfishness.  To  think  of  one's  duty  is  to 
admit  the  self-revealing  and  future  unmisting  light  of 
self-sacrifice.  Once  prohibitions  become  the  order  of  the 
day,  especially  in  a  limited  community,  the  spirit  of 
intolerance  is  abroad;  every  man  yearns  to  confine  his 
neighbour  and  put  him  in  moral  and  intellectual  lead- 
ing strings.  The  origin  and  meaning  of  the  "  Thou 
shalt  uots  "  are  forgotten;  the  spirit  of  them  dies  rap- 
idly, and  the  letter  binds  and  petrifies  the  souls  that 
must  obey  them.  Progress  in  ethics  is  finally  stopped, 
and  it  is  accepted  as  a  law  of  nature  that  there  never 
was  any  development  of  conscience  and  never  can  be 
any  other  ethical  point  of  view.  Moral  stagnauce  is 
taken  as  the  rule  of  human  life,  and  nothing  short  of  a 
new  impulse  from  spheres  outside  the  world  can  lib- 
erate the  race,  thus  blinded,  from  its  vicious  circle  of 
thought. 

Advance  of  the  human  system  to  higher  points  of 
view  is  in  Umauora  the  moral  test  and  standard  of 
actions  and  conduct.  In  all  that  is,  nothing  has  ever 
died,  nothing  is  dead;  what  seems  dead  and  fixed  for 
ever  in  permanent  form  is  suffering  change  as  truly  as 
the  flitting  aurora  of  the  north;  the  rock,  that  seems 
the  same  in  our  old  age  as  when  we  saw  it  in  infancy, 
is  in  process  of  transformation  no  less  than  we  our- 
selves are;  it  is  made  up  of  particles  that  are  groups  of 
molecules;  and  these  molecules,  moving  with  varying 
degrees  of  rapidity  round  and  across  each  other's  orbits, 
consist  themselves  of  still  more  minute  atoms  that  are 
but  points  of  living  energy.  Send  another  form  of  en- 
ergy, like  heat,  through  this  apparently  torpid  mass, 
and  it  stirs  palpably  to  our  senses;  what  was  dormant 
to  us  before  has  awakened,  and,  as  the  supply  of  the 


Ethics  621 

foreign  energy  increases,  the  rock  moves  and  changes 
beneath  our  gaze;  not  that  the  long-torpid  mass  has 
not  an  energy  of  its  own;  it  is  a  store  of  energy,  every 
atom  of  it  waiting  but  for  the  touch  of  another  kind  to 
awaken  from  its  age-long  sleep,  aud  to  send  most  of  it 
free  and  a  step  higher  into  the  wandering  sphere  again. 
The  difference  between  solid  and  liquid  and  between 
liquid  and  gas  is  only  a  question  of  time.  In  the  solids 
the  molecules  take  longer  to  move  through  the  same 
space  than  those  of  the  liquid,  which  in  their  turn  take 
longer  than  those  of  the  gas;  for  solids  flow  under  the 
influence  of  gravitation  or  other  force  just  as  truly  as 
liquids  or  gases  flow. 

It  is  the  same  with  energies;  one  differs  from  another 
in  pace;  time  is  the  only  essential  difference  between 
them.  The  pace  of  vital  energy  is  so  distinctive  in 
its  swiftness  that  it  forms  a  new  order  of  existence. 
Thought  is  the  swiftest  of  the  vital  energies  that  we 
know,  and  to  rise  in  the  scale  is  to  quicken  the  pace. 
The  civilised  man  thinks  as  much  more  rapidly  than 
the  savage  as  the  savage  thinks  more  rapidly  than  the 
mollusc,  if  the  last  may  be  said  to  think  or  feel  at  all. 
And  there  are  heights  above  existing  human  thought 
for  man  to  climb.  Higher  and  ever  higher  the  scale  of 
energies  in  the  cosmos  must  go,  till  time  becomes  what 
would  seem  to  us  but  a  vanishing  point;  immediately 
above  us  lies  the  vital  energy  to  which  a  thousand 
years  are  but  as  a  moment.  To  the  microbe,  if  it  could 
think,  human  life  would  seem  an  eternity.  To  creative 
thought,  which  is  the  Limanoran  ideal,  eternity,  future 
as  well  as  past,  is  focussed  into  a  moment. 

Up  through  the  scale  of  energy  the  whole  cosmos  is 
ever  climbing,  with  occasional  lapses  and  falls,  time  be- 
ing the  only  differentiating  quality.     To  quicken  the 


622  Limanora 

pace  of  development  is  the  one  immediate  aim  of  L,itn- 
anoran  civilisation,  and  the  morality  of  an  action  is 
measured  by  its  contribution  to  this  aim.  The  higher 
they  climb,  the  nobler,  the  more  ethereal,  becomes  their 
energy;  the  less  governed  and  clogged  by  animal  con- 
ditions, the  more  easy  to  quicken  the  pace  of  develop- 
ment. For  the  cosmic  law  of  influence  is  that  the 
closer  in  quality  and  degree  the  spheres  of  energy,  the 
more  likely  is  the  higher  to  mould  the  lower  and  raise 
it  near  to  its  level.  The  source  of  the  everlasting 
movement  and  life  in  the  cosmos  is  the  unstable  equi- 
librium of  all  nuclei  and  stores  of  energy.  Every 
world  differs  from  every  other  world  in  its  capacity  for 
various  forms  of  energy;  and  so  does  everything  in  it 
differ  from  everything  else  in  the  amount  of  any  par- 
ticular form  of  energy  it  can  contain.  Comparative 
proximity  sets  up  a  current  between  any  two  nuclei 
of  energy  that  thus  differ.  Whenever  the  two  reach 
stable  equilibrium,  that  is,  whenever  they  come  to  have 
equal  shares  of  the  energy,  the  current  of  influence 
ceases,  and  they  are  dead  to  each  other.  The  socia- 
listic ideal  is  political  and  social  death;  when  all  the 
members  of  a  community  are  equal  and  alike  in  their 
share  of  its  privileges  and  products  and  capacities,  its 
rights  and  duties,  it  ceases  to  grow  or  develop;  stagna- 
tion is  the  law  of  its  being,  especially  if  there  are  no 
neighbouring  communities  differing  from  it  on  which 
it  can  react.  The  L,imanorans  deliberately  strove  to 
keep  up  and  strengthen  the  differences  between  not  only 
families,  but  individuals,  in  rights,  duties,  capacities, 
aims.  The  differences  were  an  everlasting  fountain 
of  renewing  life.  The  law  of  political  and  social  life  is 
exactly  the  same  as  that  of  gravitation  and  of  all  the 
other  cosmic  forces.     Two  sources  of  energy  will  con- 


Ethics  623 

tinue  to  influence  each  other,  till  they  reach  equality, 
the  greater  giving  of  its  share  of  energy  a  larger  pro- 
portion than  the  less.  What  keeps  the  cosmos  eternally 
alive  is  the  complexity  of  the  mutual  influences. 
There  are  no  two  bodies  or  centres  of  an  energy  so  iso- 
lated or  so  simply  constituted  as  to  remain  for  ever 
dead  or  unchanging,  once  they  have  reached  stable 
equilibrium  towards  each  other  in  respect  to  their 
special  form  of  energy.  And  so  it  is  with  men;  the 
socialistic  ideal  is  an  impossibility  in  this  universe. 

In  the  human  sphere  this  cosmic  law  has  farther- 
reaching  issues  than  the  merely  political.  The  Lim- 
anorans  were  willing  to  do  much  for  the  advance  of 
mankind,  but  they  had  come  to  see  that  apostolism  is 
a  case  of  this  law  of  mutuality  of  influence  as  truly  as 
any  other  phenomenon;  the  higher  must  not  only  give 
voluntarily  of  his  influence  and  character  to  the  lower, 
but  the  lower  must  give  of  his  to  the  apostle;  and  if  the 
proximity  continues  long  enough,  this  mutual  give- 
and-take  will  end  in  the  missionary  coming  nearer  to 
the  original  moral  standard  of  the  convert  than  the  con- 
vert comes  to  his  patron's  original  standard.  Where 
the  grades  of  the  two  civilisations  are  widely  separated, 
though  the  process  of  assimilation  may  be  long,  ex- 
tended over  even  many  generations,  it  will  be  most  dis- 
astrous to  human  progress.  It  is  better,  they  concluded 
from  their  long  experience,  to  isolate  an  advancing  race 
that  is  far  ahead  of  all  other  races,  and  thus  to  give  it 
the  chance  of  coming  within  the  sphere  of  still  higher 
intelligences. 

Most  advanced  religions  have  begun  with  the  impulse 
towards  this,  yearning  for  a  loftier  sphere  than  that 
in  which  they  are  hedged.     They  try  to  isolate  their 


624  Limanora 

followers  from  the  lowering  influences  of  the  world 
around,  in  order  that  they  may  reach  the  ideal  and 
influence  that  are  just  above  them.  But,  as  they 
apostolise  and  expand,  the  worshippers  become  mere 
parasites  of  their  God;  they  try  to  batten  upon  Him 
with  their  lower  natures,  and  thus  drag  Him  down  to 
their  level.  After  the  first  noble  impulse  and  inspira- 
tion, it  is  seldom  that  a  religion  does  not  become  as 
truly  an  instance  of  parasitism  as  the  meanest  bacterial 
life.  The  lower  all  through  the  universe  is  eager  to 
parasite  on  the  higher;  minute  organisms  try  to  lodge 
in  the  tissues  of  those  that  are  larger  and  more  de- 
veloped. As  long  as  host  and  parasite  can  pursue  their 
functions  unhindered  by  their  intimate  relationships, 
little  harm  is  done;  but  as  soon  as  the  debris  of  the 
lower  clogs  the  organs  of  the  host,  what  we  call  disease 
results  and  the  minute  guest  becomes  a  hurtful  para- 
site. As  long  as  the  religious  impulse  sends  the  nature 
higher  on  the  path  of  development,  so  long  does  it  give 
of  its  best  to  the  Deity,  so  long  does  it  fail  to  clog  the 
advance  of  the  cosmos.  But  when  it  extends  its  con- 
quest to  mean  and  unprogressive  natures,  the  common, 
unenthusiastic  natures  that  are  saturated  with  envy 
and  jealousy,  then  does  it  become  mere  parasitism; 
the  religion  has  grown  into  a  disease.  The  warm,  hu- 
mane, and  generous  natures  which  are  touched  b>T  a 
new  inspiration,  rise  to  an  exceptional  pitch  of  fervour 
under  its  influence,  and  develop  at  a  pace  that  stirs  the 
alarm  and  envy  of  their  neighbours;  whilst  the  result- 
ant persecution  continues  unabated,  there  can  be  no 
degeneration,  the  worship  can  never  be  parasitic.  But 
as  soon  as  the  persistence  and  progress  of  the  early  wor- 
shippers and  their  propagandist  enthusiasm  begin  to 
invite  the  commonplace,  cowardly  spirits  of  the  mass, 


Ethics  625 

who  can  never  appreciate  what  is  above  them  except  to 
envy  it  and  drag  it  down  to  their  level,  its  era  of  devel- 
opment is  past.  The  cosmic  law  of  reciprocity  never 
fails  to  act,  and  the  united  influence  of  the  meaner  ma- 
jority is  greater  in  its  power  over  the  whole  than  the 
fervour  of  the  noble  few;  down  falls  the  worship  to  the 
level  of  the  many. 

It  was  on  this  cosmic  law  that  the  Limanorans  based 
their  refusal  to  go  out  and  attempt  to  convert  and  raise 
the  rest  of  mankind  to  their  standard.  The}-  knew 
from  the  nature  of  the  universe  that  the  attempt  would 
end  in  corrupting  themselves  and  dragging  them  down 
farther  than  they  could  drag  up  their  converts.  They 
preferred  to  give  of  their  best  to  the  unorbed  existence 
which  filled  space  outside  of  the  world,  and  to  make 
their  best  still  better.  Thus  they  knew  the}'  were  serv- 
ing most  truly  the  great  end  of  all  being,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  cosmos,  the  elevation  of  the  energy  in  it 
towards  more  and  more  spiritual  and  progressive 
grades.  They  strove  to  perpetuate  and  strengthen 
their  consciousness  of  what  was  above  them,  and  to 
break  the  yoke  of  the  lower  self,  the  self  that  at  death 
amalgamates  with  what  is  material  and  stagnant,  al- 
though the  latter  was  needed  as  a  stepping-stone  as 
long  as  they  remained  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  In 
seeking  the  proximity  and  influence  of  the  higher  en- 
ergies and  existences  that  seldom  touched  the  earth, 
they  anxiously  guarded  themselves  from  all  parasitism 
which  might  drag  these  down  in  the  scale  of  being; 
and  this  led  them  to  abandon  attempts  to  personalise 
the  relationship  to  them.  They  would  have  no  part 
in  worshipping  or  prostrating  themselves  before  these 
beings  in 'order  to  obtain  their  protection  and  patron- 
age; for  this,  they  knew,  becomes  merely  sectarian,  the 


626  Limanora 

outcome  of  envy  and  jealousy,  the  cause  of  bigotry  and 
intolerance,  persecution  and  revenge.  They  did  not 
desire  the  exclusive  influence  of  a  higher  being,  nor  to 
become  obstructions  to  its  further  development;  to  rise 
to  its  level  was  their  active  spiritual  ambition  in  striv- 
ing to  gain  proximity  to  it. 

As  their  senses,  especially  their  inner  senses,  de- 
veloped, they  were  getting  more  and  more  certain  of 
a  vast  universe  of  being  just  outside  the  merely  ter- 
restrial, and  new  inspirations  and  senses  were  ever 
awakening  in  them;  nobler  ideas  and  impulses  pressed 
in  upon  them,  they  scarcely  knew  whence.  They 
were  afraid  to  define  the  source,  lest  they  should 
humanise  the  idea  of  it  and  pollute  it.  What  they 
were  sure  of  was  that  infinite  space  was  filled  with 
unorbed  life  and  energy,  rising  in  higher  and  higher 
grades,  as  it  receded  from  the  terrene.  The  energy  of 
the  worlds  and  of  the  other  nuclei  of  force  was  gradu- 
ally rising  through  the  grades  of  being,  thanks  chiefly 
to  the  measureless  existence  which  hovered  round 
them,  yet  settled  upon  no  centre  of  fixed  energy.  Out 
of  this  unorbed  life  came  the  impulses  and  inspira- 
tions that  made  such  epochs  in  the  history  of  a  world. 
Their  magnetic  sympathy  with  this  they  were  strength- 
ening and  elevating  every  generation,  as  they  strove  to 
rise  higher  and  higher  amongst  these  existences  in 
order  that  into  their  spirits  might  come  nobler  and 
nobler  influences.  As  long  as  they  were  conscious  of 
qualities  and  degrees  of  existence  above  them,  so  long 
would  they  be  stimulated  on  their  upward  develop- 
ment. They  had  no  fear  that  they  would  ever  reach  a 
point  from  which  they  could  not  see  heights  beyond. 
That,  they  knew,  would  be  complete  spiritual  death. 
But  they  knew  too  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as 


Ethics  627 

death,  or  entire  annihilation,  in  the  whole  cosmos. 
What  seemed  to  us  death  was  but  the  final  parting  of 
two  grades  of  being  or  energy,  the  lower  to  coalesce 
with  some  fixed  form  of  energy  and  attach  itself  again 
to  some  more  rapidly  developing  form,  the  higher  to 
range  itself  with  the  unnucleated  energies  of  space, 
still  to  rise  by  proximity  to  some  higher  life.  They 
were  scientifically  certain  that  there  could  be  no  end 
to  this  process  of  development  upwards.  Aspiration 
was  the  duty  and  true  function  of  all  existence.  To 
quicken  the  pace  of  the  evolution,  to  range  themselves 
more  and  more  swiftly  with  the  higher  life  of  the  cos- 
mos, this  was  the  prerogative  of  vital  energy  that  had 
gained  consciousness  of  itself  and  its  purpose. 

Their  conscience  and  morality  were  based  upon  this 
quickening  ascension.  The  test  of  an  action  was  this: 
does  it  help  in  raising  the  humanity  higher  in  the  scale 
of  being?  Nothing  could  be  good  that  stopped  their 
ascent;  nothing  could  be  bad  that  compelled  them  to 
rise  more  quickly.  The  elders  generally  saw  at  a 
glance  all  the  bearings  of  an  act  and  knew  whether  it 
contributed  to  this  general  aim  or  not.  Where  they 
hesitated  on  account  of  the  complexity  of  the  problem, 
they  met  and  discussed  it,  calling  in  all  the  accurate 
science  they  had  to  their  aid;  if  after  all  they  had  to 
lay  the  question  aside  unanswered,  then  was  the  act 
left  in  that  neutral  zone  of  conduct  which  the  L,ima- 
norans  might  or  might  not  enter  as  they  saw  fit.  Such 
acts  carried  no  moral  discount  or  credit  with  them  for 
the  time.  But  often  the  advance  of  an  age,  or  even  a 
few  years,  would  remove  the  act  from  the  neutral  zone 
into  the  bad  or  the  good;  a  higher  point  of  view  gen- 
erally solved  their  doubt.  From  the  opinion  of  the 
elders  there  rayed  out  magnetically  into  the  3roung  and 


628 


Limanora 


immature  the  sense  of  what  was  right,  to  act  as  con- 
science where  they  were  incapable  of  reasoning  out  the 
position. 

There  was  thus  no  feature  of  their  lives  but  came 
within  the  range  of  morality.  Even  the  habitual  and 
automatic  movements  and  actions,  which  form  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  life  of  the  other  terrestrial  races 
had  been  reduced  to  an  almost  inappreciable  propor- 
tion in  theirs  and  were  ever  being  questioned  and 
tested  to  see  if  they  harmonised  with  the  newer  points 
of  view  that  had  been  reached.  There  was  nothing  in 
their  whole  existence  that  had  not  its  moral  relation- 
ships. Their  sciences  and  arts,  their  experiments  and 
inventions,  were  as  much  a  part  of  their  moral  life  as 
their  character  and  their  conduct  towards  each  other. 
Morality  was  the  relationship  to  the  ever-developing, 
ever-advancing,  aim  of  the  race,  and  nothing  in  the 
whole  range  of  their  life  was  indifferent  to  that. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A    WARNING 


EVER  and  again  there  overshadowed  the  spirit  of 
the  race  a  cloud,  a  foreboding,  that  contrasted 
deeply  with  their  usual  exhilaration.  The  intervals 
between  its  appearances  were  often  long,  occasionally 
brief.  At  first  I  could  not  understand  the  cause  of  it; 
for  I  was  still  in  pupillage  and  had  not  3-et  developed 
the  sympathetic  magnetism  that  ultimately  made  me  a 
member  of  the  race.  But,  when  it  recurred  once  or 
twice,  I  began  to  see  that  it  followed  the  passions  of 
Lilaroma,  and  that  the  families  ol  the  Leomo  were  least 
affected  by  it  and  most  active  whilst  it  lasted.  A  nother 
concomitance  was  the  subsequent  importance  of  the 
questions  connected  with  inter-stellar  migration. 

The  discover}7  of  the  infinite  and  invisible  life  of 
unorbed  space,  not  only  infinitesimal  but  highly  or- 
ganised, lessened  the  gloom  of  these  beclouded  periods, 
and  made  the  Eimanorans  less  feverish  in  their  astro- 
nomic and  volitational  researches.  They  felt  that  the 
divorce  of  the  higher  and  lower  energies  of  their 
human  system,  commonly  called  death,  was  no  annihi- 
lation of  their  entity,  no  closure  of  their  career  of  devel- 
opment, but  only  an  incident  in  it,  that  took  the  further 
history  of  their  higher  energies  out  of  the  reach  of  the 

629 


630  Limanora 

grosser  terrestrial  senses.  They  had  no  need,  they 
felt,  to  reach  out  frantically  towards  some  other  world. 
They  had  lost  all  fear  of  death,  and  all  thought  of  it  as 
the  end  of  their  evolution.  Still  upwards  would  they 
climb  through  higher  stages  of  existence,  in  spite  of 
the  loss  of  that  grosser  stepping-stone  which  we  call  the 
body.  Knowing  how  full  the  interstellar  infinities  are 
of  vital  energies  and  organisms,  and  knowing  too  how 
the  body  began  a  new,  though  perhaps  lower,  career 
at  death,  they  were  certain  that  the  vitality  and  spiritual 
energy  that  left  it  on  dissolution,  a  far  loftier  and  more 
highly  organised  entity  than  the  divorced  terrene  ele- 
ments, would  still  exist  and  still  develop.  The  whole 
encyclopaedia  of  their  scientific  knowledge  was  opposed 
to  its  annihilation,  and  the  discovery  of  the  vital  ful- 
ness of  space  left  no  other  alternative  than  that  it  was 
thither  the  spiritual  energy  of  the  human  personality 
escaped  at  death. 

Yet  there  lingered  a  tinge  of  gloom  at  the  time  of 
any  overwhelming  spasm  in  the  heart  of  the  great 
mountain;  and  the  L,eomo  bated  not  a  jot  of  their  ac- 
tivity at  such  periods  in  combating  the  once-dreaded 
catastrophe.  For  they  had  no  definite  knowledge  of 
the  future  pace  of  their  evolution,  once  the  two  types 
of  energy  in  them  should  be  divorced;  and  they  had 
as  a  firmly  grasped  fact  their  development  as  they  ex- 
isted upon  their  island,  and  the  increasing  swiftness  of 
its  pace  as  the  years  went  on.  They  had  ever  been  a 
people  readier  to  accept  a  bird  in  the  hand  than  two  in 
the  bush,  although  they  might  be  fairly  confident  of 
their  skill  in  bird-catching.  This  very  preference  for 
facts  had  helped  them  to  abandon  the  promises  of  faith 
that  their  old  religion  had  so  lavishly  held  out  to  them, 
and  to  accept  the  attitude  of  patiently  waiting  for  light. 


A  Warning  631 


So  now,  when  their  science  had  found  the  light  and 
they  had  every  prospect  of  opening  communication  with 
the  intelligences  that  lived  just  outside  of  their  unaided 
ken,  they  would  rather  wait  upon  the  solid  earth  till 
they  saw  as  solid  fact  to  rest  on  in  their  flight  from  the 
earth. 

They  were  eager,  therefore,  to  postpone  for  some 
generations  or  ages  yet  the  catastrophe  they  feared. 
They  had  had  far  back  in  their  history  a  dim  sense  of 
the  wrecking  power  of  Lilaroma  and  its  connection 
with  the  volcanoes  in  their  old  antarctic  home.  Their 
more  recent  earth-science  had  made  the  twilight  pro- 
phecy into  a  clear  fact.  In  an  early  geological  age  of 
the  earth  the  continent  round  the  south  pole  had  sent 
a  broad  outlier  far  north  through  the  southern  ocean; 
it  had  indeed  stretched  close  up  to  the  equator.  This 
they  knew  as  soon  as  they  began  to  study  the  natural 
history  of  Limanora  and  of  the  archipelago  around  it. 
Not  merely  were  the  birds  of  the  same  or  kindred 
species  with  those  of  their  old  home,  but  many  of  them 
had  long  preserved  the  memory  of  the  former  bridge 
between  the  two  ;  as  the  ancient  expedition  that 
brought  the  ancestry  of  the  Limanorans  sailed  across 
the  intervening  ocean,  flights  of  the  birds  they  were 
familiar  with  were  seen  making  for  their  new  home, 
and  some  of  them  fell  on  the  decks  or  settled  occasion- 
ally on  the  rigging  of  their  ships.  Their  unscientific 
and  superstitious  ancestors  took  this  as  an  omen  of  suc- 
cess; they  thought  that  these  birds  had  been  sent  from 
heaven  to  direct  their  course,  and  they  steered  straight 
in  the  line  of  their  flight.  The  successful  result  con- 
firmed them  in  their  superstition  for  many  ages  after 
they  had  landed  on  their  tropical  isles. 

But  the  careful  observation  and  the  science  of  later 


632  Limanora 

times  cleared  up  the  mystery.  For  a  period  they  had 
taken  it  as  a  proof  of  the  similarity  of  nature  all  over 
the  world,  when  they  found  so  much  of  the  fauna  and 
flora  like  those  of  their  old  home.  But  at  last  it  began 
to  .strike  cautious  observers  that  certain  birds  disap- 
peared during  their  summer  season  and  reappeared  in 
their  winter.  Classification  soon  separated  the  migra- 
tory from  the  localised,  and  the  modifications  of  the 
species  that  they  had  been  accustomed  to  in  their  old 
home  from  those  that  were  quite  new  to  them.  This 
passed  from  the  birds  to  the  other  animals,  and  thence 
to  the  flora.  After  the  observer  had  done  his  work  of 
classifying  all  the  animal  and  plant  life,  scientific 
thought  entered  in  and  found  the  causes  of  both  the 
similarities  and  the  dissimilarities  between  the  new  or 
tropical  and  the  old  or  antarctic.  After  many  ages  the 
migration  of  birds  lessened;  for  few  returned  in  the 
winter,  and  as  the  climate  became  cooler  through  pro- 
cess of  time,  most  species  preferred  to  remain  the  sum- 
mer long.  Then,  when  an  expedition  went  back  to 
the  ancient  home  of  the  race  in  the  south,  all  trace  of 
cultivation  and  cities  had  vanished  underneath  the 
everlasting  snows,  and  the  southern  summer  was  found 
to  be  as  severe  as  their  ancient  winter  had  been.  The 
increasing  rigours  of  the  new  climate  to  the  south  had 
reduced  the  mass  of  the  bird-migrations. 

The  expedition  followed  the  long-charted  route  of 
the  feathered  travellers,  and  on  its  return  sounded  the 
depths  and  tested  the  seas  and  their  fauna  the  whole 
way.  When  the  investigators  had  reached  the  close  of 
their  labours,  it  became  patent  to  them  that  their  voy- 
age had  been  along  the  coast  of  a  buried  continent  that 
had  had  its  northernmost  point  not  far  to  the  north  of 
Iyilaroma.     Their  soundings  along  the  line  of  bird-route 


A  Warning  633 

were  ever  the  shallowest,  and  at  points  on  it,  if  they 
left  its  direction,  they  suddenly  dropped  into  the 
deepest  of  oceans.  A  mountain  -  range,  sometimes 
broken  into  immense  precipices  and  forested  along  its 
slopes,  had  evidently  margined  the  lost  continent  on  its 
west  and  had  stood  the  siege  of  the  encroaching  ocean 
through  geological  ages,  till  the  slow  catastrophe  of 
subsidence  had  sent  it  under  the  victorious  march  of  its 
enemy.  Here  and  there  it  left  a  barren  rock  or  a  vol- 
canoed  isle  like  a  buoy  to  mark  where  its  wreckage  had 
been  submerged.  Everywhere  on  the  bird-line  they 
found  a  shallow-ocean  flora  and  fauna;  if  ever  they 
sounded  or  dredged  or  fished  or  dived  at  any  distance 
from  it,  they  passed  into  a  deeply  pelagic  belt  of  life, 
or  rather  belt  of  death. 

It  dawned  upon  them  that  their  old  home  and  their 
new  formed  the  extremities  of  the  vanished  continent, 
and  that  their  height  was  one  of  the  consequences  of 
the  submergence;  the  deeper  the  great  submarine  range 
sank,  the  higher  L,il aroma  and  the  lofty  torch-mount- 
ains of  their  ancient  home  rose.  But  repeated  visits 
to  their  old  snow-coffined  land,  and  the  expansion  of 
their  earth  science  into  an  art,  gave  them  farther- 
reaching  views  of  the  causes  of  this  vast  subsidence. 
The  old  bird-route  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  fissure- 
lines  in  the  crust  of  the  earth.  Out  of  it  along  its 
whole  length  had  flowed  in  the  earliest  geological  ages 
the  oozes  of  lava  that  formed  the  backbone  of  the  old 
continent  as  it  rose  from  the  sea,  its  most  lasting  bas- 
tion against  the  encroachments  of  the  watery  element. 
Here  and  there  along  the  great  chain  of  mountains,  as 
they  rose  denuded  of  their  softer  rocks  and  stood 
wrinkled  into  canons  and  gorges  by  the  rivers  that 
swept  them  clean,  blazed  at  long  intervals  of  time  huge 


634  Limanora 

vents  for  the  smouldering  fires  underneath.  As  the 
mountain-barrier  sank  and  the  ocean  flowed  over  its 
forests  that  had  graved  into  the  winged  species  the 
memory  of  their  ancestral  feeding-grounds,  and  finally 
closed  all  the  breathing-spaces  of  the  fiery  Titan  be- 
neath, his  passion  sought  vent  more  and  more  through 
the  torch-cones  of  the  snow-buried  southern  land  and 
through  the  lofty  crater  of  Ularoma.  Expedition  after 
expedition  to  their  ancient  home  revealed  the  simul- 
taneity of  volcanic  action  in  the  two  regions;  but  the 
greater  the  titanic  paroxysms  in  the  one,  the  less  they 
were  in  the  other.  They  were  the  two  pulses  and 
breathing-vents  of  the  buried  giant. 

For  many  ages  after  some  unknown  submarine  catas- 
trophe had  hedged  them  into  their  archipelago  by  the 
untraversible  mill-race  and  the  dark  belt  of  mist,  they 
had  been  unable  to  test  the  connection  between  their 
own  fire-mountain  and  those  in  their  old  home.  But 
they  could  easily  imagine  during  the  paroxysms  of 
Lilaroma  what  was  occurring  far  off  in  the  southern 
snows;  and  when  they  had  mastered  the  art  of  aerial 
flight,  they  resumed  their  expeditions  to  the  glacial 
regions  of  the  south.  Every  few  years  might  have 
been  seen,  had  there  been  mariners  there  to  see  them, 
the  strangest  of  all  flying  things,  beings  in  human 
form,  winging  their  way  through  the  air  southwards  or 
northwards.  At  first  the  bands  were  large  and  well 
equipped  in  order  to  guard  against  all  risks.  But  in 
time  they  grew  bolder,  and  companies  of  half  a  dozen, 
or  even  three  or  four,  ventured  on  the  long  flight  to  the 
south.  At  last  the  families  of  earth-scientists  were  en- 
trusted with  the  task,  and  sent  their  messengers  to  re- 
port on  the  conduct  of  the  antarctic  volcanoes. 

These  reported  that,  if  ever  those  southern  vents 


A  Warning  635 

should  close,  no  application  of  the  art  of  Leomarie 
could  save  Limanora,  or  indeed  the  archipelago  around, 
from  disastrous  explosion.  The  circular  current  with 
its  belt  of  mist  had  shown  that  this  was  the  thinnest 
crust  and  the  weakest  point  on  the  whole  line  of  fissure; 
and  if  the  sea  broke  into  the  volcanoes  of  the  other  ex- 
tremity, the  steam  generated  from  the  percolating  water 
would  make  for  the  archipelago  and  blow  it  to  dust. 
Recent  messengers  to  the  south  had  found  dangerous 
developments  in  the  regions  of  snow  and  ice.  Where 
it  lay  in  the  line  of  the  ancient  fissure,  the  land  was 
rapidly  subsiding;  and  that  was  exactly  the  locality  of 
the  southern  volcanoes.  If  the  walls  of  their  craters 
should  sink  so  low  that  the  waters  of  the  ocean  could 
make  breaches  in  them,  then  would  the  final  catas- 
trophe occur  to  Limanora. 

Whilst  the  last  decennial  review  was  proceeding,  and 
high  hopes  were  rising  in  the  breasts  of  all  that  a  few 
generations  would  see  the  race  independent  of  the 
fear  of  terrestrial  cataclysms,  their  minds  were  jerked 
from  the  future  into  the  present.  Our  torch-cone  sud- 
denly broke  into  a  great  column  of  steam,  and  a  fine 
dust  fell  upon  the  island.  There  had  been  no  prelim- 
inary warning  and  little  had  been  put  in  readiness,  al- 
though the  Leomo  had  been  uneasy  for  weeks  as  they 
noticed  the  spasmodic  action  of  their  earth-sensors. 
The  heat  and  the  magnetism  in  their  lava-wells  had 
been  rapidly  changing  their  degree  every  few  hours. 
But  this  had  occurred  in  previous  periods  without  any 
recorded  effect  above  the  surface  of  the  earth.  They 
had  therefore  only  kept  more  zealous  watch  without 
resorting  to  more  than  the  usual  relieving  action. 

Now  the  wThole  people  were  called  to  their  assistance, 
and  the  concentrated  power  of  Rimla  was  turned  on  to 


636  Limanora 

the  boring  of  vents.  On  every  side  of  Lilaroma  leo- 
morans  were  busy,  and  soon  the  imprisoned  lava  and 
steam  escaped  by  a  thousand  exits.  But  a  new  method 
was  adopted  by  the  Leomo.  They  shipped  in  huge 
faleenas  of  the  newest  and  most  powerful  type  a 
number  of  earth-perforators,  and  along  with  them  a 
large  quantity  of  machinery  that  would  enable  them 
to  use  the  wasting  energies  of  the  southern  elements. 
Amongst  others  Thyriel  and  myself  had  to  manage 
and  steer  one  of  the  great  aerial  cars,  for  it  was  chiefly 
members  of  the  L,eomo  that  manned  the  expedition. 

High  we  rose  above  the  archipelago,  before  we  at- 
tempted to  cross  the  mist-ring.  Below  us  we  could  see 
the  Limanoran  houses  and  buildings  gleam  rainbow- 
hued  like  bubbles  on  the  beach  of  an  ocean.  Higher 
still,  and  the  various  isles  of  the  archipelago  crept  closer 
together  in  the  perspective,  a  handful  of  emeralds  cast 
upon  a  plain  of  azure  Our  eyes  wandered  over  the 
scene  and  saw  how  it  was  set  in  its  dull-white  milky 
ring,  a  narrow  and  impenetrable  hedge  that  cut  this 
little  world  off  from  the  sight  of  its  fellows  upon  earth. 

Through  a  cloud  we  shot  that  drenched  and  freshened 
our  gleaming  car,  then  followed  the  fleet  southwards 
across  the  circular  thread  drawn  round  the  nest  of 
islets.  We  were  out  in  the  wider  spaces  of  the  world 
again,  and  our  home  receded  into  a  speck  on  the  hori- 
zon. Over  the  waste  of  waters  we  sped,  a  great  gre)r 
plain  flecked  with  white.  At  first  I  lost  my  cool  con- 
fidence in  this  trackless  wilderness;  but  fearlessness  re- 
turned to  me  as  I  saw  the  face  of  Thyriel  bent  now  on 
the  Limanoran  modifications  of  the  compass,  and  again 
on  the  rest  of  the  fleet  to  the  right  and  left  of  us.  The 
lumona  or  sun-compass  and  the  ularema  or  sun-chart 
were  our  trusty  guides  by  day,  even  if  we  had  lost  sight 


A  Warning  637 

of  our  companions  at  any  time;  our  track  had  been 
marked  out  for  us  on  our  sun-chart  of  the  heavens  and 
we  could  not  fail  to  know  where  we  were,  even  if  clouds 
should  obscure  the  face  of  the  great  orb.  If  only  a 
few  straggling  rays  managed  to  reach  the  face  of  the 
instrument,  indistinguishable  though  they  might  be 
to  our  sense  of  warmth  or  of  light,  they  affected  its 
delicate  apparatus;  it  told  us  their  exact  direction  and 
angle,  whilst  another  face  told  us  the  exact  point  of 
the  day,  and  of  the  north  and  south  line.  There  was 
needed  no  calculation  to  find  the  region  where  we  were, 
the  lumona  did  it  for  us;  and  it  kept  tracing  our  course, 
as  we  accomplished  it,  by  means  of  an  indicator  on  our 
ularema  or  day-chart. 

Once  I  had  been  instructed  by  Thyriel  in  the  man- 
agement and  guidance  of  the  air-ship,  she  lay  down  to 
rest;  and  I  was  alone  beneath  the  oppressive  paleness 
of  the  vault.  I  dared  not  look  over  the  side  lest  the 
sight  of  the  grey  wilderness  far  below  me  should  make 
my  head  swim.  Only  once  did  I  look  up;  and  the 
sense  of  limitlessness  numbed  me.  Now  and  again  I 
glanced  quickly  at  the  rest  of  the  fleet.  But  I  was  too 
fearful  lest  something  should  go  wrong  to  turn  my  eyes 
away  from  the  tracer  of  the  lumona  as  it  moved  upon 
the  sun-chart,  or  to  take  my  nerve-power  from  my 
hands  as  they  grasped,  the  right  the  governor  of  our 
flight-power  and  the  left  the  rod  of  the  steering-gear. 
As  the  hours  flew  and  nothing  untoward  occurred,  I  re- 
laxed the  tension  of  my  system  and  enjoyed  the  glide 
of  the  ship  and  sang  to  the  beat  of  its  wings.  The 
sense  of  solitude  passed  as  I  felt  the  magnetic  sympathy 
of  my  comrades  in  the  other  cars  thrill  me  and  my 
spirits  rose  with  the  exhilaration  of  the  heights  through 
which  we  travelled. 


638  Limanora 

The  sun  had  reached  the  western  round  of  the  sea, 
and  swelled  into  a  vast  ball  of  fire.  Thyriel  awoke  as 
his  rim  dipped  into  the  ocean  and  at  once  prepared  for 
a  change  of  methods.  She  taught  me  how  to  turn  on 
the  power  of  the  engine  into  the  rows  of  huge  lamps 
that  were  meant  to  search  the  darkness  of  the  night. 
Then  she  brought  out  the  alumare  or  star-compass  and 
substituted  it  for  the  lumona;  she  removed  the  day- 
chart  and  put  in  its  place  the  manularema  or  night- 
chart,  adjusting  the  indicator  of  the  star-compass  to  its 
tracing. 

Night  fell  and  brought  out  the  lamp- jewelled  sides 
of  the  other  air-ships.  They  looked  like  a  fleet  of 
gigantic  glow-worms  sweeping  through  the  air.  What 
we  showed  like  to  any  wandering  ship  on  the  ocean  be- 
neath us  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  I  myself  had  tra- 
versed those  solitary  levels  in  the  Daydream,  and  I  tried 
to  think  how  I  could  have  explained  the  strange  phen- 
omenon had  I  seen  it  from  my  deck.  The  superstitious 
amongst  my  sailors  might  have  taken  it  for  a  portent, 
some  as  one  from  heaven,  others  as  one  from  hell. 
The  scientific  would  have  concluded  it  to  be  a  series  of 
fireballs  travelling  before  an  upper  current  of  the 
winds.  I  should  have  recorded  it  in  my  note-book 
among  the  observations  of  meteors  and  other  similar 
phenomena,  and  have  waited  further  illumination.  By 
day  we  were  too  high  to  attract  the  attention  of  anyone 
but  the  investigator  of  cloud-changes  and  weather- 
signs,  and  we  saw  no  sign  of  human  life  during  our 
long  aerial  voyage  to  the  south.  But  away  beneath  us 
we  could  just  descry  floating  brown  specks  swiftly  trac- 
ing their  zigzag  course  over  the  grey  plain  and  knew 
them  for  the  broad-winged  albatrosses,  whose  flight  the 
L,imanorans  had  so  carefully  studied  for  the  construe- 


A  Warning  639 


tion  and  navigation  of  their  faleenas.  For  by  an  auto- 
matic arrangement  which  brought  the  currents  of  the 
wind  to  bear  upon  the  steering-gear,  our  car  now  grace- 
fully rose,  and  again  as  gracefully  fell  when  the  wind 
was  against  it,  now  swept  to  this  side,  now  glided  to 
that.  All  that  I  had  to  think  of  was  the  main  course. 
On  a  later  voyage  even  the  steersman  was  superfluous, 
except  in  a  storm  or  violent  change  of  winds;  for  a  chart 
was  invented  on  which  the  course  of  the  voyage  was 
traced  in  the  shape  of  a  metal  groove,  and  in  this  the 
end  of  the  steering-rod  was  made  to  move.  The  two 
automatic  movements  governed  the  manipulation  of 
the  winds  and  the  course  of  the  car.  It  was  the  same 
with  the  engines  that  achieved  the  beat  of  the  wings; 
the  slightest  change  in  the  opposing  medium  commun- 
icated itself  to  the  electric  power  and  modified  it.  All 
that  was  needed  from  the  occupants  of  the  faleena  was 
a  little  attention  now  and  again  to  see  that  the  ma- 
chinery was  working  smoothly  and  solidly,  and  to  en- 
sure that  the  steering-rod  adjusted  itself  to  the  caprices 
of  the  wind. 

On  this,  our  first  long  aerial  expedition,  one  of  us 
had  always  to  be  at  the  helm,  although  I  found  after 
a  few  watches  that  there  was  needed  but  littl«  ten- 
sion either  of  muscle  or  nerve  to  keep  the  ship  to  her 
course.  Thyriel  took  the  first  half  of  the  night  and 
of  the  day,  and  I  took  the  other  two  sections.  When 
I  awoke  in  the  middle  of  the  first  night  and  took 
my  place  at  the  helm,  the  sight  bewildered  and  dazed 
me;  I  felt  as  if  I  had  gone  back  again  into  the  region 
of  dream.  The  stars  seemed  to  throb  close  in  upon 
me;  I  felt  as  if  in  a  cosmic  confessional  with  myriads 
of  world-eyes  wide  open  to  see  into  my  heart.  I  was 
not  afraid;  yet  my  veins  throbbed  in  awe  before  this 


640  Limanora 

palpitation  of  the  cosmos.  But  I  settled  down  to  my 
task  and  grew  conscious  of  the  surrounding  fleet  of  fire- 
flies, that  even  at  their  great  distance  from  me  numbed 
my  eyes  with  the  flash  of  their  lamps  and  paled  the 
light  of  the  stars.  Beneath  me,  as  I  looked  over  the 
bulwark,  there  was  nothing  but  the  solid  blackness  of 
midnight;  never  had  I  felt  so  isolated.  Thoughts 
wove  as  unceasingly  in  my  brain  as  the  wing-beats 
wove  upon  the  loom  of  night.  Now  and  again  was  I 
stirred  from  my  meditation  by  the  swoop  of  our  faleena 
as  it  breasted  some  great  billow  of  wind.  So  precip- 
itous were  some  of  those  waves  that  my  heart  leapt  in 
my  bosom,  as  we  rose  before  them  or  slid  down  them. 
I  never  passed  a  night  of  such  intensity  of  exhilaration 
and  thought.  There  was  my  lifelong  comrade  peace- 
fully sleeping  as  I  watched;  the  infinities  above  mag- 
netised me  with  their  sympathies,  as  their  eyes  searched 
me  to  the  heart;  below  me  the  midnight  brooded  si- 
lently over  what  I  knew  to  be  the  untracked  ocean. 

Day  after  day,  night  after  night,  we  sped  on,  the  air 
growing  rapidly  colder,  till,  for  the  sake  of  my  unadapt- 
able system,  we  drew  the  transparent  oval  roof  over  the 
faleena  and  fixed  the  radiator  which  kept  the  tempera- 
ture at  an  even  level.  Thereafter  the  stars  were  not  so 
omnipresent  in  their  gaze;  there  was  more  of  a  limit  to 
the  space  in  which  we  dwelt;  and  the  movements  of 
the  faleena  impressed  themselves  less  upon  my  senses. 

At  last  as  my  watch  was  ending  one  moonless  night 
I  could  see  a  dim  flare  in  the  southern  sky  which  I  took 
for  the  aurora  australis.  But  when  Thyriel  gazed  at  it 
and  then  at  the  agitation  of  the  fireflies  abreast  of  us, 
she  knew  it  was  the  reflection  of  the  great  antarctic 
torch-mountains.  I  rose  at  dawn  and  could  see  be- 
low us  the  white  glacial  cliffs  of  the  polar  continent. 


A  Warning  641 

Thyriel  seemed  stirred  by  some  emotion  that  I  was  ig- 
norant of,  but  soon  knew  to  be  the  recognition  of  the 
original  home  of  her  race;  there  seemed  to  move  in  her 
blood  the  ancestral  yearning  for  the  land  from  which 
they  had  come.  She  did  not  shrivel  up  in  the  excess- 
ive cold  as  I  did,  but  looked  forward  with  ecstasy  to 
moving  amid  the  snow  and  the  ice,  though  she  had  seen 
little  of  them  in  her  own  short  life  except  around  the 
crater  of  Lilaroma. 

Bred  though  I  had  been  in  the  rigorous  winters  of 
Scotland,  I  could  not  bear  the  bite  of  the  wind  and  had 
to  put  on  one  of  their  cold-repelling  garments.  This 
consisted  of  two  layers  of  flexible  irelium-woven  cloth, 
one  of  which  was  a  conductor  of  electricity  and  the 
other  a  resister  of  it.  The  outer  or  conducting  layer 
was  connected  with  some  labramor  which  carried  a 
store  of  electricity  and  this  combination  produced  a 
warm,  healthful  glow  all  round  the  body.  I  had  gloves 
and  cap  and  mask  of  the  same  construction  and,  when 
fully  equipped,  I  could  defy  the  most  bitter  cold  that 
the  upper  atmosphere  of  the  earth  ever  experienced. 

With  this  armour  on  I  looked  forward  with  delight 
to  our  sojourn  in  the  region  of  snow  and  ice  as  I 
watched  our  approach  to  the  rough  ocean-like  surface 
of  the  new  country.  For  Thyriel  took  the  helm,  now 
that  there  was  needed  more  delicate  manipulation  of 
the  faleena,  and  I  stood  in  the  bow  and  gazed  at  the 
rest  of  the  fleet  rising  and  falling  on  the  wind-waves. 
Now  and  again  I  interpreted  a  signal  from  the  faleena 
of  the  guiding  elder,  whilst  my  comrade  was  busy 
adapting  the  course  to  the  caprices  of  the  wind.  But 
as  a  rule  her  own  magnetic  sense  was  alert  enough  to 
know  what  were  the  intentions  of  the  other  air-ships. 

Round   the  group   of  great   fire-cones  we   coasted, 


642  Limanora 

keeping  clear  of  their  smoke-brush  and  dust-vomit;  for 
the  wind  was  off  the  land  and  bore  their  ejections  miles 
out  to  sea  and  high  into  the  air.  Across  the  icy  plains, 
ridged  and  hummocked  by  pressure  from  the  higher 
land  beyond,  we  flew,  once  rising  high  enough  to  get 
a  glance  over  the  passes  of  the  great  mountain-barrier, 
whence  the  torrents  of  ice  slowly  found  their  way  to 
the  coast.  Beyond  I  could  discern,  even  with  iny 
undeveloped  eye-power,  level  plains  stretching  to  the 
horizon,  plains  which  indicated  water  underneath;  and 
upon  them  the  direction  of  the  furrows  and  hummocks 
revealed  whither  the  mass  of  the  sea  beneath  flowed  to- 
wards some  narrow  exit,  overlapping  and  playing  leap- 
frog in  its  eagerness  to  escape  the  pressure  from 
behind. 

But  the  habits  of  this  almost  land-locked  sea  had  no 
immediate  interest  for  us,  and  we  soon  turned  and  made 
before  the  wind  for  a  valley  that  ]ay  sheltered  between 
the  mountain  -  chain  and  the  group  of  torch  -  cones. 
Within  a  brief  time  we  had  all  our  faleenas  secured, 
and  the  multitudinous  rings  of  the  leomorans  they 
carried  deposited  in  caves  ready  for  the  coming  opera- 
tions. Then  the  elder  who  led  the  expedition  took  his 
air-ship,  and  with  it  we  saw  him  circle  round  the  indi- 
vidual volcanoes  and  reconnoitre  the  inroads  of  the  sea. 
He  had,  we  knew7,  already  seen  the  dangerous  prox- 
imity of  one  new  crater  to  the  low  coast  that  divided 
the  group  of  fire-hills  from  the  galloping  waves. 

Manifestly  expedition  was  demanded.  For  he  re- 
turned with  great  swnftness;  and  all  was  soon  bustle 
and  preparation  in  the  camp,  although  it  had  settled 
down  for  a  rest.  The  word  was  passed  round  that,  if 
the  wind  changed  and  whipped  the  racing  billows  to 
their  raid,  a  high  tide  might  find  its  way  into  the  new 


A  Warning  643 

crater  and  undo  the  local  work  of  Limanoran  civilisa- 
tion. The  fleet  was  at  once  in  the  air  with  the  engines 
ready  to  be  placed;  and  within  two  hours  the  winds 
and  the  waves,  the  magnetism  of  the  earth,  and  the 
electricity  of  the  air  had  been  yoked  to  the  great 
power-machines.  Then  the  rings  of  the  leomorans 
were  attached,  and  the  stores  of  energy  brought  to 
bear  on  them;  before  long  we  could  see  at  a  dozen 
different  points  high  up  the  side  of  the  cone  brushes  of 
black  smoke  bending  before  the  wind.  Between  the 
new  low  crater  and  the  old  lofty  one  a  score  of  new 
vents  for  the  explosive  energy  of  the  fires  underneath 
had  been  worked  into  the  crust  of  the  earth  ere  the 
wind  had  changed  round  into  alliance  with  the  waters. 
The  molten  rock  which  had  oozed  from  the  dangerous 
cone  at  the  edge  of  the  sea  had  sealed  its  mouth  before 
the  ocean  leapt  into  it.  In  order  to  make  the  seal  more 
secure  a  sluggish  river  of  lava  was  directed  down  the 
slope  from  several  leomorans,  and  sent  over  the  lips  of 
the  exposed  crater.  After  every  sign  of  the  offending 
cone  but  a  low  hummock  had  disappeared  under  the 
molten  invasion,  bastions  were  drawn  all  along  the 
coast  beneath  it  in  the  manner  familiar  to  L,imanora. 

When  this  fortification  of  the  mountain  was  finished 
and  the  strain  upon  our  muscles  and  nerves,  and  espe- 
cially upon  our  eyes,  was  relieved,  we  had  leisure  to 
look  about  us.  The  sight  that  met  our  view,  as  we 
looked  down  the  slopes  of  the  mountain,  was  deeply 
impressive.  The  flow  of  the  red-hot  rock  from  the 
mouths  of  our  lava-wells  had  melted  the  glacial  concre- 
tions for  hundreds  of  yards  beyond  the  margins  of  the 
molten  currents,  and  laid  bare  the  ruins  of  a  great  city 
that  had  evidently  been  buried  in  ice  and  snow  since 
the  lowering  of  the  temperature  had  made  the  climate 


644  Limanora 

unbearable  by  men  of  civilised  nurture  and  habits. 
The  steam  rising  from  the  neighbourhood  of  ice  and 
fire  had  covered  the  disentombed  secret  from  our  vision 
whilst  we  were  working,  and  as  the  wind  fell  that  had 
swept  the  veil  aside  for  a  moment,  the  marvellous  sight 
was  again  curtained  over,  and  we  began  to  think  that 
it  had  been  but  a  waking  dream. 

Some  days  after,  when  the  lava  had  sufficiently 
cooled  to  leave  portions  of  the  defrosted  slope  open  to 
the  light  of  heaven,  we  revisited  the  scene.  Several 
broad  streets  and  great  squares  had  been  unburied ;  and 
the  architecture  revealed  how  artistic  and  how  ad- 
vanced in  mechanical  contrivances  the  people  that  built 
them  had  been.  A  thick  covering  of  volcanic  dust  and 
ash  had  plastered  them  over,  so  that  it  was  difficult  to 
move  on  foot  amongst  the  ruins  now  that  the  moisture 
of  the  melting  ice  had  mingled  with  it.  After  clearing 
the  debris  from  the  doors  we  entered  some  of  the  houses 
that  had  not  lost  their  roofs,  and  there  was  evidence  of 
hasty  flight;  on  the  floors  and  couches  were  strewn 
pellmell  the  contents  of  boxes  and  cupboards  and  ward- 
robes, half  of  them  still  stiff  with  the  ice  that  the  ad- 
jacent streams  of  lava  had  been  unable  to  melt.  The 
evacuation  of  this  luxurious  city  had  evidently  occurred 
during  some  great  outburst  of  the  volcano  which  had 
threatened  its  existence.  But  the  climate  had  grown 
rigorous  before  the  catastrophe;  for  in  every  house  and 
every  room  there  were  elaborate  apparatus  for  heating, 
and  most  of  the  clothing  lying  about  was  of  fur  or  of 
thick,  warm  stuffs,  and  when  we  dug  beneath  the  coat- 
ing of  volcanic  ash,  we  found  in  places  accumulations 
of  ice  which  must  have  taken  years  to  freeze.  Layer 
after  layer  of  dirt  and  rubbish  had  been  embedded  by 
the  preservative  frost;  and,  had  we  cared  to  cut  through 


A  Warning  645 


the  stratified  ice,  we  might  have  counted  the  years,  or 
perhaps  centuries,  through  which  this  heap  had  ac- 
cumulated. 

For  several  visits  we  could  find  no  human  body, 
though  we  came  across  one  or  two  carcasses  of  emaci- 
ated animals  that  had  evidently  lived  amongst  the  ruins 
till  the  last  vestige  of  fodder  had  disappeared  under  the 
volcanic  layer  or  the  accumulating  ice.  But  at  last  in 
a  back  lane,  probably  inhabited  by  slaves,  we  pene- 
trated into  a  low  house  whose  roof  had  crashed  in  under 
the  weight  of  the  falling  dust,  and  there  we  saw  a  scene 
that  moved  us  to  tears.  The  mummied  body  of  a  little 
child  prepared  for  burial  lay  upon  a  bier  and  over  it 
was  stretched  the  corpse  of  the  mother;  she  could  not 
tear  herself  away  from  the  last  relics  of  her  dead  baby, 
and  in  returning  to  rescue  it,  or  to  weep  over  it,  had 
been  overwhelmed  by  the  falling  roof;  the  frost  of  cent- 
uries had  kept  off  the  finger  of  decay,  and  this  Niobe 
and  her  child  had  remained  like  sculptured  stone.  We 
covered  the  bodies  gently  with  the  volcanic  mud  there 
as  they  lay,  and  left  the  frost  to  work  its  petrifaction 
again,  for  we  had  not  the  heart  to  disturb  the  scene. 
Here  amongst  the  proletariate  of  this  luxurious  people 
there  was  evidence  of  that  maternal  transport  which 
had  showed  the  path  of  ethical  development  and  exal- 
tation to  the  Limanorans,  and  was  destined  to  raise  the 
energies  of  our  world  into  higher  and  higher  forms. 
This,  we  knew,  was  but  the  terrestrial  type  of  an  al- 
truistic law  which  was  working  throughout  the  cosmos, 
and  making  every  centre  of  energy  that  had  more  than 
the  average  give  of  its  more  to  those  centres  that  had 
less. 

All  in  our  power  was  now  done  to  relieve  the  press- 
ure of  the  subterranean   fires   that  were   threatening 


646  Limanora 

to  burst  the  ancient  fissure;  and  all  too  that  could  be 
done  to  ward  off  the  batteries  of  the  ocean.  Then  were 
we  sent  in  different  directions  to  inspect  and  report  on 
the  state  of  the  ice-cliffs  that  beetled  over  the  waves. 
We  hovered  for  days  about  the  rocks  and  their  glaciers 
and  the  universal  observation  was  that  the  coast  was 
rapidly  subsiding;  since  the  last  visit  of  the  L,imanoran 
messengers  its  line  had  sunk  many  yards;  marks  that 
had  been  made  far  above  the  reach  of  the  waters  were 
now  washed  by  the  break  of  the  higher  billows.  Thy- 
riel  and  I  were  sent  to  a  loftier  bluff  which  extended 
for  almost  a  mile  between  shelving  beach  and  shelving 
beach  just  underneath  the  site  of  the  buried  city. 

After  inspecting  the  higher  parts  of  it  for  days  and 
measuring  the  height  of  the  old  marks  above  the 
farthest  reach  of  the  waves,  a  windless  day,  on  which 
the  ocean  lay  as  if  frozen,  gave  us  opportunity  of  fol- 
lowing the  cliff  at  its  lowest  sea-margin.  For  half  a 
mile  or  more  nothing  exceptional  met  our  eyes.  Then 
suddenly  we  came  upon  a  great  chasm  in  the  rock 
where  a  soft  intermediate  stratum  had  mouldered  away 
into  sand  before  the  everlasting  battery  of  the  waves. 
Over  it  a  great  dome  of  ice  was  stretched,  which  was 
ever  being  thickened  by  the  climbing  spray  of  the  bil- 
lows as  they  broke  into  it.  The  entrance  into  this  cave 
was  somewhat  low  and  narrow,  and  a  jagged  rock  in 
the  centre  of  it  churned  the  angry  waters  into  milky 
foam.  We  saw  that  this  feature  would  make  the  open- 
ing invisible  under  its  veil  of  spray  on  all  but  days  of 
perfect  calm. 

We  were  afraid  to  enter  lest  the  sea  should  rise  and 
imprison  us,  so  we  called  some  comrades  to  our  aid,  and 
they  brought  a  light  faleena  that  was  made  to  serve 
the  double  purpose  of  air-boat  and  water-boat.     Then 


A  Warning  647 

Thyriel  took  flight  from  above,  and  with  the  impetus 
we  bore  ourselves  and  the  boat  through  one  of  the  pas- 
sages past  the  jagged  tooth  of  rock.  As  we  settled 
upon  our  faleena  and  looked  up,  the  sight  that  met  our 
eyes  took  our  breath  away.  The  sun  was  shining  brill- 
iantly, lighting  up  the  dome  of  ice  with  such  power  as 
to  make  its  whole  thickness  transparent.  Through  it 
in  every  direction  thick  as  motes  in  a  sunbeam  were 
strewn  human  bodies,  wrapped  and  mummied  as  in 
death.  Some  lay  on  their  sides  with  the  head  pillowed 
on  the  arm;  and  as  the  face  was  uncovered,  we  could 
see  the  features  as  clearly  as  if  we  stood  in  the  chamber 
where  they  lay.  The  frost  had  kept  the  flesh  and  the 
tints  of  it  uncorrupted.  We  could  almost  have  sworn 
that  they  breathed  as  they  slept,  yet  in  the  case  of  most 
it  must  have  been  the  sleep  of  thousands  of  years. 

This  was  the  cemetery  of  that  ancient  people  which 
had  built  the  city  lately  found.  Doubtless  this  ice- 
crust  in  which  their  graves  had  been  cut  had  once 
stood  securely  miles  away  from  the  coast;  and  in  it 
they  thought  that  their  dead  would  be  safe  for  all  time. 
But,  as  the  shore  sank,  the  glacial  crust  ceased  to  be 
a  plain  and  slid  downwards  along  the  increasing  slope 
to  the  ocean;  and,  before  many  j'ears  could  pass,  this 
hyaline  resting-place  of  the  dead  would  be  launched 
into  the  sea  and  be  swept  by  the  storms  and  tides  into 
warmer  airs  and  currents,  which  would  release  the 
bodies  from  their  beautiful  petrifaction,  and  give  their 
elements  to  the  ravening  powers  of  the  waters,  or  the 
microscopic  corruption  of  invisible  life.  In  fact  on  our 
return  voyage  we  flew  over  several  icebergs  that  were 
floating  catacombs.  On  the  surface  of  one  we  discerned 
the  pallor  of  a  mummied  face,  just  released  by  the 
strong  rays  of  the  sun  from  its  ancient  rigidity,  and  the 


648  Limanora 

still   stony  garments  shining  through  their   pellucid 
covering. 

We  could  almost  decipher  through  the  milky  blueness 
of  the  ice-dome,  when  the  sun  shone  most  brightly,  the 
inscriptions  on  the  tablets  lying  beside  these  forgotten 
dead.  But  the  winds  began  to  dirge  within  this 
strange  diaphanous  mausoleum  ;  and  even  the  waters 
seemed  to  move  around  the  cave  with  suppressed  sob. 
We  thought  the  sounds  ominous,  and,  rising  high  up 
into  the  roof  of  the  cave,  close  to  the  dead  that  had  slept 
there  so  like  life  for  so  many  centuries,  we  poised  our- 
selves and,  taking  aim,  dashed  through  the  narrow  en- 
trance, while  our  comrades  without  drew  the  faleena 
out  by  the  cord  with  which  they  had  held  it  securely. 
Later  in  the  day,  as  the  calm  continued,  the  guiding 
elder  sent  others  into  the  cave  and  they  secured  one  of 
the  most  elaborately  hieroglyphed  tablets.  Those  of 
us  who  had  most  recently  studied  in  the  valley  of 
memories  were  able  to  trace  much  resemblance  between 
the  language  of  the  inscription  and  the  ancient  L,ima- 
noran  tongue;  and  when  we  returned  to  our  island,  it 
afforded  one  of  the  clues  by  which  we  were  able  to 
unravel  the  history  of  this  ancient  antarctic  people. 
They  were  the  descendants  of  those  whom  the  north- 
wards migration  had  left  to  their  fate  amid  the  growing 
rigours  of  the  southern  winter.  After  the  departure  of 
these  who  founded  the  colonies  of  Riallaro  and  became 
the  ancestry  of  the  Iyimanorans,  the  wealthier  classes 
had  evidently  abandoned  themselves  to  pleasure  and 
luxury  within  their  splendid  and  superheated  dwell- 
ings, whilst  the  proletariate,  though  growing  more 
vigorous,  and  venturing  far  out  upon  the  ice  and  the 
ocean  on  fishing  and  furring  expeditions,  fell  deeper 
and  deeper  into  the  contempt  of  semi-slavery.     Loyalty 


A  Warning  649 

to  their  masters  and  ignorance  still  kept  them  unrebel- 
lious  in  their  growing  embrutement,  till  the  volcanic 
catastrophe  solved  the  problem  of  their  future  relation- 
ships. Whither  the  survivors  had  gone,  when  the  out- 
burst of  the  subterranean  fires  drove  them  forth,  no  one 
could  say ;  doubtless  the  peasant  fishermen  and  hunters 
took  the  effeminate  caste  in  their  rough  boats  over  the 
sea  to  some  warmer  climate;  probably,  if  the  expedi- 
tions survived  the  storms  and  billows  of  the  broad  ocean, 
they  landed  on  the  coasts  of  South  Africa  or  on  those 
of  South  America  and  introduced  an  alien  civilisation 
and  more  complicated  problems  amongst  the  primitive 
peoples  of  those  isolated  regions. 

Before  we  left,  we  had  to  investigate  the  shores  of 
the  inland  sea  for  evidence  of  subsidence,  resting  on 
them  for  a  period  whilst  we  punctured  the  slopes  of  the 
mountains,  in  order  to  give  a  new  direction  to  the 
pressure  of  the  fires  upspringing  from  below.  When 
all  the  leomorans  that  were  needed  had  been  placed  in 
position  and  got  into  working  order,  not  more  than  half 
of  the  expedition  were  required  to  attend  to  them. 
The  others,  and  amongst  them  Thyriel  and  myself, 
were  allowed  to  wander  over  the  shores  of  the  gulf  or 
sea,  everywhere  finding  abundant  evidence  that  the 
whole  neck  of  land  which  divided  it  from  the  ocean, 
high  though  it  still  was  in  the  lofty  mountain-barrier, 
was  rapidly  subsiding,  and  would  ultimately  succumb 
to  the  batteries  of  the  besieging  elements.  This  might 
take  many  centuries,  but  that  the  huge  volcanic  range 
would  be  submarine  within  measurable  time  was  ob- 
vious. Had  the  rate  for  even  a  decade  of  years  been 
constant,  we  could  easily  have  calculated  the  number 
of  centuries  that  would  elapse  before  the  great  catas- 
trophe;   but   the  amount  of   subsidence  varied   from 


650  Limanora 

period  to  period,  increasing  and  then  decreasing.  The 
most  alarming  change  had  occurred  since  the  last  visit 
of  the  Leomo  to  their  old  home.  Square  miles  that 
had  been  low-lying  land  some  few  years  before  were 
now  encrusted  with  marine  ice;  and  lofty  precipices 
were  perceptibly  lower. 

The  most  striking  proof  of  the  rapid  subsidence  was 
not  observed  till  the  day  before  our  return.  The 
shoulder  of  an  outlier  of  the  range  pushed  its  way  as  a 
lofty  promontory  right  into  the  gulf,  its  whole  length 
and  breadth  being  covered  with  glacial  concretion. 
Some  recent  tempest  had  broken  off  the  end  of  its  river 
of  ice,  and  at  the  same  time  a  sudden  subsidence  of  the 
land  had  left  the  face  of  its  cliff  a  complete  new  section, 
as  if  shorn  by  a  microtome.  The  sight  that  revealed 
itself  to  us  as  we  flew  round  it  was  most  impressive. 
City  after  city  had  evidently  been  built  upon  the  broad 
bluff,  its  pleasant  position  overlooking  the  inland  sea 
and  its  proximity  to  easy  harbourage  ever  attracting 
the  population  back  again  after  each  cataclysm.  Time 
after  time  the  city  had,  we  conjectured,  been  over- 
whelmed by  the  ashes  of  some  great  volcanic  outburst 
from  the  range.  There  we  could  see  in  section  the 
various  strata  of  buildings  one  above  the  other,  each 
filled  with  ash  and  dust  and  preserved  by  the  power  of 
frost.  Hundreds  of  years  must  have  elapsed  between 
the  destruction  of  one  city  and  the  building  of  the  next, 
a  period  long  enough  in  fact  to  obliterate  the  memory 
of  panic  and  anguish  from  the  traditions  of  posterity. 
In  some  houses  we  could  still  discern  the  signs  of  the 
stampede  that  had  occurred  one  day  thousands  of 
years  ago.  Articles  of  value  were  half-torn  from  their 
treasuries  and  then  abandoned;  jeweller}'  and  dishes 
made  of  the  precious  metals  were  here  and  there  held 


A  Warning  651 

in  place  upon  the  mosaicked  floors  by  the  frozen  mass 
of  earth  above  them;  they  had  evidently  been  seized  at 
the  first  warning  of  the  coming  catastrophe  and  then 
thrown  away  as  alarm  made  life  dearer.  In  one  cham- 
ber we  saw  the  outline  of  the  body  of  a  man  across  its 
threshold,  his  hand  out  beyond  his  head  clutching  some 
receptacle  of  precious  metals.  In  the  space  between 
the  outer  walls  of  two  houses  the  body  of  a  woman  was 
exposed,  face  downwards,  and  beneath  the  bosom  the 
form  of  an  infant  child. 

How  many  long-forgotten  tragedies  might  be  un- 
earthed we  could  not  stay  to  discover.  A  little  labour 
and  we  could  have  penetrated  into  these  cities;  the 
application  of  a  leomoran  would  have  melted  the  dust 
and  ashes  and  brought  to  view  the  stratified  life  of 
ages  before.  Had  we  been  interested  in  following  out 
the  existence  of  these  far-distant  relatives  of  the  L,ima- 
norans,  we  could  have  begun  with  the  lowest  layer, 
and  followed  the  evidences  of  civilisation  up  through 
each  successive  entombment,  till  finally  the  people 
were  driven  from  the  site  by  frost,  a  force  more  rigor- 
ous and  potent  against  culture  and  luxury  than  fire. 
But  the  Limanorans  had  enough  in  the  records  of  their 
own  ancestry  to  tell  them  all  the  history  that  might  be 
illuminated  by  such  excavations.  They  knew  that 
after  an  advance  in  the  two  or  three  lower  strata, 
there  would  be  found  no  progress  except  in  luxury 
and  the  arts  that  contribute  to  luxury.  And  thejr 
had  enough  of  such  development  in  their  own  archi- 
pelago before  their  own  senses,  to  allay  any  eager- 
ness for  viewing  illustrations  of  it  in  a'ncient  and  dead 
history. 

The  sight  was  interesting  and  impressive,  but  we 
all  had  learned  its  lesson   too  well  to  desire  further 


652  Limanora 

acquantance  with  it.  In  Fialnme  we  had  studied  sim- 
ilar histories  during  our  pupillage;  and  daily  could  we 
watch  through  the  idrovamolan  the  enactment  of  simi- 
lar life  in  the  islands  around  Iyimanora.  A  little  ap- 
parent advance  was  followed  by  as  much  retrogression; 
the  generations  were  as  like  in  essence  as  two  species 
of  the  same  genus,  the  difference  being  merely  super- 
ficial and  unvital.  It  was  enough  to  make  the  L,ima- 
noran  heart  stop  in  its  beating  to  see  the  drear)' 
sameness  of  the  ages  in  the  history  of  a  people,  as  far 
as  development  of  spiritual  character  and  power  were 
concerned.  The  changes  and  revolutions  were  but 
changes  of  lay-figures  under  the  official  dresses  and 
ceremonials,  or  at  best  an  expansion  of  the  -sphere  of 
luxury.  What  mattered  it  to  men  that  were  panting 
after  ideals  they  ever  saw  above  and  be)'ond  them  who 
were  masters  and  who  were  servants  or  subjects  in 
those  unprogressive  levels  of  humanity,  who  or  how 
many  sated  their  appetites  or  covered  their  skins  with 
the  rich  and  ceremonious  raiment  of  dominance  ?  The 
heroisms  and  romances,  the  striking  turns  of  fortune, 
the  world- renowned  victories  that  made  the  eyes  of 
other  races  blaze  with  wonder  were  all  histrionic  to 
those  who  knew  what  real  development  was. 

This  section  cut  through  the  history  often  thousand 
years  would  reveal  but  the  same  old  story  that  they 
had  read  so  often  in  the  annals  of  their  own  far  past. 
We  turned  away  sick  of  heart,  knowing  the  countless 
griefs  and  agonies,  struggles  and  combats,  that  had 
gone  to  the  making  of  this  human  stratification,  and 
the  complete  futility  of  them  all.  The  best  that  could 
be  thought  was  that  oblivion  had  buried  them,  and  that 
the  energy  set  free  at  the  deaths  of  so  many  thousands 
of  generations  had  perchance  a  better  opportunity  of 


A  Warning  653 

rising  in  the  scale  of  vitality  as  it  wandered  into  other 
spheres  than  the  human  or  the  terrestrial. 

It  was  not  then  without  deliberate  intention  that  our 
departure  from  the  old  home  of  the  race  occurred  soon 
after  the  discovery  of  this  strange  frozen  museum  of 
forgotten  peoples.  After  everything  was  done  that 
could  be  done  to  divert  the  upward  pressure  of  the 
subterranean  fires  from  vents  close  to  the  margin  of  the 
sea,  the  faleenas  winged  their  way  back  to  the  north  as 
rapidly  as  they  had  come.  No  incident  took  place  to 
mar  the  return  voyage,  and  we  were  soon  back  at  our 
old  employments  in  L,imanora. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


RELIGION 


AFTER  a  few  days'  reflection  and  observation,  I 
felt  a  change  in  the  spirit  of  the  people.  There 
was  less  of  that  serenity  which  had  struck  me  so  often 
as  one  of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  themselves 
and  their  actions.  Every  family  seemed  to  hurry  in 
its  efforts  at  development  and  the  pace  of  their  advance 
might  almost  be  called  feverish  now.  This  was  espe- 
cially the  case  with  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  more 
spiritual  investigations  into  the  nature  of  the  cosmos. 
Next  to  them  in  increase  of  eagerness  and  enthusiasm 
came  the  astronomical  families,  the  astro-biological, 
and  all  whose  researches  bore  upon  slellar  conditions 
and  interstellar  migration.  The  gaze  of  the  whole  race 
was  more  distinctly  outwards  and  extra-terrestrial. 

I  had  conjectured  the  cause  of  this  acceleration  and 
impetuosity  and  soon  definitely  knew  it  to  be  the  re- 
sult of  our  expedition  to  the  south  and  the  reports  we 
brought  back.  The  elders  on  considering  them  saw 
that  the  safety  of  the  island  as  a  resting-place  and  arena 
for  their  progress  was  not  to  be  depended  on  for  many 
generations  more.  The  increase  in  the  rate  of  subsid- 
ence of  their  old  home  meant  a  transference  of  the  de- 
structive power  of  the  subterranean  fires  to  the  other 

654 


Religion  655 

end  of  the  ancient  fissure  within  a  measurable  period. 
The  volcanic  vents  on  the  antarctic  coast  must  be 
closed  beneath  the  ocean  before  many  centuries  were 
over;  and  the  rushing  waters  in  quenching  their  fires 
would  find  their  way  in  uncontrollable  steam  towards 
the  weakest  point  of  the  crust,  which  they  knew  to  be 
their  own  archipelago.  Ere  many  generations  could 
come  and  go  this  terrestrial  home  of  the  race  would  be 
blown  to  dust,  and  new  lands  would  appear  at  some 
other  point  on  the  line  of  fissure. 

Where  could  they  settle  on  the  round  of  the  earth? 
There  was  no  land  except  their  old  home  to  the  south 
isolated  enough  to  admit  of  their  following  up  their 
ideals.  All  the  remote  islands  in  other  oceans  were 
already  fully  occupied,  and  were  impracticable  for  them 
unless  at  the  sacrifice  of  human  life,  a  condition  that 
would  outrage  their  whole  idea  of  development.  The 
globe  was  closed  for  them  except  the  region  of  everlast- 
ing ice  where  their  remote  ancestry  had  dwelt ;  and  that 
too  might  at  any  moment  flash  into  dust  before  the  ex- 
plosive forces  beneath  the  crust.  The  alternative  of 
seeking  a  home  on  another  star  had  seemed  to  them  the 
only  one  for  many  generations,  and  they  had  been  pre- 
paring for  it  by  inventions  that  would  enable  them  to 
float  clear  of  the  terrestrial  atmosphere  for  many  cent- 
uries, and  by  explorations  in  interstellar  space.  But 
many  discoveries  and  thoughts  had  thrown  a  new  light 
upon  this  stellar  migration.  They  would  have  to  ex- 
ist in  their  circumscribed  faleenas  as  they  travelled 
through  the  ether  for  many  generations  of  even  their 
long  lives,  and  these  ships  would  be  their  cradle  and 
their  tomb.  They  would  have  to  resign  for  many  cent- 
uries the  conquests  of  the  elements  and  of  the  forces 
of  nature,  that  they  had  achieved  in  Limanora.     The 


656  Limanora 

broad  movement  which  these  past  ages  of  history  had 
given  to  their  life,  would  be  narrowed  into  a  space  no 
larger  than  one  chamber  of  their  own  mansions.  They 
would  live  imprisoned,  and  their  imprisonment  would 
lay  its  brand  upon  their  natures  and  still  more  upon 
the  natures  of  their  descendants.  The  proximity  of  so 
many  in  so  small  a  space  would  breed  physical  and, 
still  worse,  spiritual  disease,  that  would  haunt  their 
posterity  for  generations  after  they  should  settle  iu 
their  new  stellar  abode.  Their  offspring  would  have 
the  habits  and  ideas  of  the  savage  reared  in  the  wigwam 
of  the  rover  or  the  hut  of  the  slave.  Even  if  they  could 
achieve  individual  flight  through  the  ether,  they  would 
have  to  keep  close  to  their  storeships  and  return  every 
few  minutes  to  the  exhausted  atmosphere  of  their  swift- 
winging  faleenas. 

If  every  condition  of  their  interstellar  voyage  were 
the  same  as  their  life  in  their  own  L,imanora,  what 
disappointments  might  not  they  encounter  in  their 
comparative  ignorance  of  the  biology  of  the  heavens? 
Would  not  most  stars  that  were  fit  to  be  inhabited  be 
already  choked  with  life  and  life  at  a  different  stage 
from  that  they  had  attained  ?  If  they  struck  upon  a 
lower  grade  of  existence  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt 
to  raise  it,  and  contrary  to  their  own  morality  to  oblit- 
erate it.  If  they  met  with  a  higher  type  of  being,  they 
would  be  repulsed  by  it  as  likely  to  degrade  it.  It 
would  be  a  wretched  existence  to  lead  a  life  of  inter- 
stellar vagabondage,  poor  beggars  of  the  cosmos,  seek- 
ing a  star  whereon  the}'  might  rest  the  sole  of  their 
foot.  Not  more  than  one  world  in  each  system  could 
beat  the  stage  that  would  fit  their  life-evolution;  most 
stars  would  be  too  young  and  fierily  crude  or  too  old 
and  exhausted  to  give  them  the  conditions  they  sought 


Religion  657 

for.  In  many  the  life  they  would  encounter  would 
shock  and  repel  them  by  its  monstrosity.  What  was  to 
hinder  some  such  gigantic  form  as,  the  L,eomo  knew, 
had  existed  on  the  earth  in  its  earlier  geological  ages, 
some  tremendous  winged  saurian,  having  the  place  on 
one  or  more  of  the  stars  they  visited  that  man  held 
upon  earth  ?  It  only  meant  the  development  of  a  brain 
proportionate  to  the  hugeness  of  the  bulk,  and  some 
swiftly  moving,  deft,  and  adaptable  limb,  like  the  hu- 
man hand,  to  give  it  complete  dominance  over  all  the 
forms  of  life  around  it.  The  elephant  needed  only  the 
mechanical  faculty  of  the  beaver  or  of  the  ant  to  out- 
strip man  in  the  struggle  of  life;  he  had  the  delicate 
manipulator  in  his  trunk,  he  had  the  long  life,  and  he 
had  the  capacity  of  skull  to  transform  him  into  the 
dominant  race  of  the  earth.  In  order  to  the  mastery  of 
his  conditions,  he  had  only  to  make  the  step  from  using 
anything  that  came  ready  to  his  trunk  as  a  weapon  into 
shaping  it  to  his  will.  Circumstances,  accidents,  op- 
portunities, pilot  the  evolution  of  life  upon  a  world,  and 
the  accidental  condition  of  an  element  or  an  energy  or 
a  locality  might  have  transformed  some  terrific  monster 
into  the  master  of  the  first  star  they  visited.  It  was 
merely  a  matter  of  more  or  less  intricate  convolutions 
of  the  brain.  But  perhaps  the  most  terrible  thing  of 
all  would  be  to  land  on  a  world  whose  inhabitants  had 
developed  the  purely  intellectual  faculties  and  the  sec- 
tion of  the  brain  corresponding  to  them,  at  the  expense 
of  the  nervous  centres  that  have  to  do  with  the  control 
of  the  passions  and  with  the  subordination  of  the  ani- 
mal nature;  what  a  horror  it  would  be  to  find  a  star 
full  of  Calibans  with  more  than  human  cunning,  and 
none  of  human  emotion  or  morality! 

The  thought  of  chances  like  these  gave  them  pause 


658  Limanora 

in  their  migratorial  quest.  The}'  began  to  feel  that 
even  life  amongst  the  ruder  of  their  fellow-men  might 
be  better  than  landing  amongst  monsters  unstirred  by 
pity  or  compassion,  reverence  or  tenderness  for  highly 
developed  life,  to  whom  bloodshed  was  nothing.  It 
was  true  that  there  were  in  most  nations  men  who  were 
so  constituted.  But  they  were,  except  when  they  got 
the  command  of  huge  armies  and  became  conquerors, 
bridled  by  fear  of  the  punishments  that  the  laws  of  the 
country  meted  out  to  criminals.  It  was  better  to  live 
in  proximity  to  beings  amongst  whom  this  moral  and 
emotional  neutrality  is  an  exception,  than  in  a  world 
filled  with  such  monsters.  Perchance,  when  their 
island-home  was  shattered  to  dust,  their  true  path  lay 
along  the  surface  of  their  own  globe.  They  might 
settle  on  the  slope  of  some  sky-piercing  mountain, 
round  whose  feet  lay  untainted  tribes  of  primitive  sav- 
ages; there  they  might  preserve  their  isolation  as  per- 
fectly as  in  Ivimanora  by  a  hedge  of  fear  around  them, 
which  their  exceptional  power  over  the  forces  of  nature 
should  forge. 

But  they  knew  that  before  many  ages  could  pass 
civilised  man  would  penetrate  amongst  the  awed  tribes 
with  his  potent  weapons  and  his  unscrupulous  cunning; 
then  would  they  be  unable  to  avoid  bloodshed,  or  hypo- 
critical ambush,  or  diplomacy;  ambition  and  hatred 
would  enter  in  and  turn  their  paradise  into  a  hell.  On 
the  whole,  they  inclined  to  the  other  alternative  that 
lay  before  them  when  the  great  catastrophe  came;  that 
is,  to  let  it  do  its  worst  on  their  physical  or  lower  ele- 
ments. Out  of  their  shattered  bodies  would  rise  the 
energy  of  their  systems  to  follow  its  career  of  develop- 
ment untrammelled  bj^  any  slow-moving  matter  that 
was  half  inert  whether  living  or  dead.     Death  so  sud- 


Religion  659 

den  as  that,  death  under  any  cirumstances  or  condi- 
tions, was  no  stop  or  misfortune  to  the  highest  that 
was  in  them;  it  was  the  swiftest  way  to  achieve  migra- 
tion into  the  interstellar  spaces.     As  it  was,  they  were 
narrowed  and  localised  in  their  development,  thought 
(the  higher  thought)  alone  finding  its  way  unchecked 
to  any  point  or  sphere  in  the  cosmos.     At  death  they 
would  all  be  freed  from  the  almost  vegetative  functions 
of  human  existence;  they  would  be  released  from  the 
prison  of  locality  and  their  whole  being  would  have  the 
ease  of  thought  in  winging  from  infinity  to  infinity, 
and  in  disregarding  the  limitations  of  time  and  space.' 
Together  the  whole  of  their  race  might  find  coalescence 
if  not  companionship  in  following  out  their  career  of 
development,  unburdened  by  alliance  with  a  lower  type 
of  energy,  and  in  more  swiftly  attaining  a  higher  and 
higher  goal  in  the  scale  of  energies. 

When  this  conclusion  had  been  reached  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  people,  the  old  serenity  returned  to 
them.  They  were  ready  to  meet  whatever  came,  not 
caring  whether  their  ascent  through  the  grades  of  being 
was  trammelled  by  terrestrial  forms  of  energy  or  set  free 
in  the  infinities  of  ether.  But  I  dimly  felt  that  there 
was  a  sublime  looking  upwards  in  all  they  did  or  said 
added  to  their  former  serenity  that  transformed  it  into 
what  approached  to  the  noblest  forms  of  devotional 
ecstasy  I  had  seen  amongst  men.  They  never  allowed 
themselves  to  fall  into  the  moulds  of  thought  that  his 
bodily  and  terrestrial  needs  so  freely  supply  to  man. 
Though  recognising  the  practical  demands  of  the 
physical  nature,  they  satisfied  and  then  dismissed  them 
as  rapidly  as  was  possible;  and  with  all  their  marvel- 
lous machinery  and  inventions  and  their  accumulation 


660  Limanora 

of  power,  the  time  occupied  in  this  satisfaction  was  so 
abbreviated  as  to  be  scarcely  noticeable  in  the  labyrinth 
of  daily  pursuits. 

I  had  been  greatly  puzzled  during  my  long  period  of 
training  to  see  no  trace  of  religious  worship  in  this 
noble  race.  Growing  up  with  the  instinct  in  me  that 
of  all  manifestations  of  human  possibilities  religion  was 
the  most  sublime,  yet  I  had  come  to  know  before  I  left 
Europe  how  degraded,  gross,  and  foul  even  a  lofty- 
minded  religion  might  become.  But  the  best  men  and 
women  I  had  known  there  had  ever  been  stirred  with 
the  spirit  of  religious  reverence  and  love.  I  could  not 
account  for  these,  the  noblest  and  ablest  beings  I  had 
seen  on  earth,  ignoring  the  claims  of  what  is  the 
highest  of  all,  and  I  watched  eagerly  for  any  indication 
of  acts  or  moods  of  worship.  Early  in  my  residence  on 
the  island  I  had  discovered  that  there  were  no  temples 
and  no  priests;  that  was  patent  to  the  most  casual 
glance  of  the  stranger.  Amongst  all  their  public  build- 
ings there  was  none  that  could  be  taken  as  devoted  to 
the  worship  of  a  deity,  and  there  was  no  family  or  caste 
or  set  of  men  whose  chief  functions  were  to  superin- 
tend such  a  worship.  But  perhaps  their  religious  acts 
were  private  or  even  secret  and  I  was  on  the  alert 
many  years  for  any  sign  of  such  a  thing  in  the  house 
of  my  proparents  or  in  that  of  Thyriel.  Finally  dis- 
covering nothing  that  could  be  construed  even  in  the 
most  distant  way  into  a  ceremonial  attitude  or  word,  I 
gradually  abandoned  any  expectation  of  such  a  thing. 

My  attention  was  now  aroused  by  the  new  halo 
around  their  serene  acceptance  of  the  conditions  of  life. 
There  was  rapture  and  there  was  longing  in  their  hal- 
cyon view  of  the  world;  yet  the  rapture  and  the  long- 
ing never  withdrew  them  from  immediate  pursuits  and 


Religion  66 1 

duties,  never  gave  them  the  ennui  of  life  that  transport 
and  passion  generally  entrain.  The}-  seemed  to  have 
the  vision  and  the  upward  glance  of  the  seer  without 
his  brooding  and  apartness.  It  was  rather  an  intensi- 
fication of  their  usual  feelings  and  attitude  to  life. 
This  was  nearer  than  anything  else  I  had  experienced 
in  Eimanora  to  the  unperturbed  faith  in  a  higher  being 
and  the  yearning  for  proximity  to  him  that  I  had  wit- 
nessed in  those  whom  we  used  in  Europe  to  call,  for  lack 
of  a  less  trite  term,  saints.  At  the  next  Manora  or  de- 
cennial review  the  predominating  interest  was  the  the- 
opathic  side  of  human  nature,  and  I  discovered  more 
of  their  views  of  religion  in  the  few  years  preceding  it 
than  in  all  the  decades  I  had  spent  amongst  them. 

So  devotional  did  I  think  the  magnetism  which  ran 
through  the  community,  that  I  plucked  up  courage  to 
ask  about  the  religion.  My  question  was  dealt  with  in 
the  calmest  and  most  rational  way  possible  amongst 
human  beings.  There  was  no  immediate  reply,  except 
an  elevation  of  the  finger  to  the  brow  and  then  to 
the  wide  vault  of  the  sky,  but  I  was  led  to  a  part  of 
Fialume  I  had  not  visited.  ,  It  lay  in  a  region  of  the 
valley  that  I  had  carefully  avoided  as  full  of  gloom,  and 
damp  with  the  vapour  of  a  tumbling  waterfall;  I  had 
never  noticed  any  one  enter  it,  and  my  curiosity  had 
never  been  awakened  about  it. 

Here  were  stored  the  records  that  illustrated  the  evo- 
lution of  religion,  records  made  by  light,  sound,  and 
magnetism.  It  was  intensely  interesting  for  me  to 
see  so  complete  a  museum  of  the  natural  history  of 
worship.  Every  faith  in  the  world  had  its  due  place, 
fixed  according  to  its  inner  spirit  and  development. 
So  graphic  was  the  map  of  the  whole  that  in  a  moment  I 
saw  the  common  kinship  of  all,  and  the  differentiating 


662  Limanora 

qualities  that  made  one  worship  higher  and  more  ad- 
vanced than  another.  My  guide  flashed  living  pictures 
of  the  ceremonies  of  each,  and  then  let  me  listen  to  the 
speeches  and  talks  of  the  officiants  and  of  many  of 
the  worshippers.  The  magnetographs  struck  into  me 
the  feelings  that  pervaded  the  masses  in  the  temples, 
and  those  that  filled  the  breast  of  the  solitary  priest  or 
devotee  during  the  most  solemn  and  enthusiastic  act  of 
worship.  I  could  feel  how  much  or  how  little  the  re- 
ligion introduced  into  the  life  of  the  people.  Day  after 
day  I  returned  with  eagerness  to  the  sight  and  the 
study  of  this  absorbing  phase  of  human  nature,  and 
seemed  to  get  to  the  very  heart  of  every  faith  and  its 
influence.  The  mere  accidents  of  its  history  were  felt 
to  be  non-essential ;  its  inner  development  stood  out  as 
plainly  as  if  written  in  letters  of  fire. 

My  guide  did  not  need  to  teach  me  the  lesson.  I 
knew  it  as  well  as  if  I  had  learned  it  from  infancy.  I 
knew  why  there  were  no  temples,  no  ceremonies,  no 
hierophantic  families,  no  outward  sign  of  faith, 
amongst  this  far-seeing  people.  Their  own  early  en- 
deavours to  purify  and  develop  the  faith  handed  down 
to  them  from  their  forefathers  were  there  as  vividly 
pictured  as  any  faith  from  the  world  outside.  They 
had  had  temples  as  splendid  as  any  I  have  ever  seen  or 
heard  described;  their  ceremonies  were  artistic,  noble, 
and  significant;  their  music  was  as  nearly  sublime  as 
earthly  music  can  be;  and  the  priestly  profession  at- 
tracted many  of  the  ablest  and  some  of  the  best  natures 
in  the  community  by  its  princely  salaries,  drawn  from 
the  gifts  of  former  ages  of  the  faithful,  and  by  its  high 
prerogatives. 

At  first  I  wondered  how  it  had  been  possible  to  up- 
root an  institution  that  had  evidently  grown  out  of  the 


Religion  663 

most  intimate  instincts  of  the  race.  The  higher  digni- 
taries were  so  lordly  and  influential  they  might  easily 
control  even  by  their  private  alliances  and  social  dom- 
inance the  powers  of  the  state;  and  the  poorer  hiero- 
phants  had  ingratiated  themselves  with  the  middle 
classes  and  proletariate,  from  whom  they  came.  Rev- 
erence, fear,  love,  ambition,  pride,  self-interest,  all  the 
commoner  emotions  and  passions  of  humanity,  were 
engaged  and  intertwined  with  the  worship.  How 
could  such  a  widely  ramifying  profession  allow  itself  to 
be  overthrown  ? 

When  the  exilings  were  over,  it  was  found  that 
there  was  not  a  member  of  the  priestly  profession  left 
on  the  island;  nor  was  there  anything  of  the  wealth  of 
the  church,  except  the  solid  walls  of  the  temples.  The 
dignitaries  and  most  of  the  transferable  riches  had 
found  their  way  to  Aleofane;  the  bulk  of  the  poor 
clergy  landed  in  Tirralaria,  and  smaller  bands  drifted 
away  to  smaller  islands  like  Coxuria,  establishing  there 
communities  marked  by  some  extreme  eccentricity  of 
faith.  All  the  vestments  and  altars  and  ornaments  of 
the  temples  had  vanished  before  the  last  expedition  left 
the  shores  of  Limanora;  even  the  huge  bells  that  had 
rung  to  service,  and  the  baser  metals  for  making  the 
roofs  water-tight,  had  disappeared.  Nothing  but  the 
stones  and  mortar  were  left  to  indicate  where  the  great 
faith  of  the  past  had  housed  itself.  One  or  two  expe- 
ditions even  were  seen  to  set  out  from  Tirralaria  and 
Aleofane  to  fetch  the  very  temples  away  stone  by  stone. 
To  prevent  the  cupidity  of  the  exiles  from  wasting  itself 
on  futile  attempts  against  the  island,  the  edifices  were 
tumbled  into  the  sea,  and  helped  to  make  the  bastions 
which  guarded  the  shores. 

Having  thus  got  rid  of  all  the  outward  property  and 


664  Limanora 

signs  of  their  former  worship,  they  had  to  count  the 
cost  and  consider  how  they  were  to  meet  the  situation. 
It  had  been  inculcated  by  the  officiants  of  the  church 
for  untold  generations  that  all  morality,  and  in  fact  all 
civilisation,  would  vanish  with  faith.  Religion  was 
the  foundation  of  everything  in  life  that  was  worth 
preserving,  and  most  of  the  people  trembled  if  any 
change  were  proposed  in  the  national  worship.  They 
feared  that  the  object  of  their  devotion  would  withdraw 
the  light  of  his  countenance  from  them,  should  the 
slightest  feature  of  it  be  modified.  Even  the  scientific 
and  cultured  thought  that  religion  acted  as  an  excellent 
watchdog  or  policeman,  keeping  the  uneducated  within 
the  bounds  of  the  laws  and  traditions  of  the  nation. 
Changes  had  crept  in  unobserved  by  the  worshippers, 
and  had  been  sanctified  by  time;  then  open  proposals 
for  change  gave  the  shock  and  the  alarm,  and  made  the 
whole  fabric  seem  to  shake  and  totter.  The  unper- 
ceived  changes  were  far  greater  and  more  revolutionary 
in  their  ultimate  effect,  for  they  were  generally  changes 
of  degeneration  which  ended  in  decay  and  ruin.  But 
everything  that  was  deliberately  intended  to  fit  the  old 
institution  to  the  new  times  was  looked  on  with  horror, 
as  sacrilege  never  to  be  forgiven. 

It  was  therefore  with  a  certain  tremor  that  they  de- 
molished the  ancient  temples,  and  put  their  stones  to 
new  and  seemingly  secular  uses.  But  once  the  trans- 
formation was  accomplished  and  no  great  catastrophe 
followed,  even  the  less  bold  gathered  courage.  As 
time  went  on  and  the  old  faith  was  forgotten  and  no 
definite  new  creed  took  its  place,  it  began  to  be  felt  that 
the  terror  of  religious  change  and  the  belief  that  re- 
ligion alone  gave  the  guaranty  of  all  morality  and 
civilisation  were  alike  baseless.  ;   After  a  decade  or  two, 


Religion  665 


i& 


when  they  began  to  reflect  on  their  past  and  analyse 
their  new  states  of  mind  and  public  feeling,  they  dis- 
covered the  most  striking  effect  of  this  abeyance  of  ec- 
clesiasticism  to  be  the  attainment  of  the  ideal  of  all 
true  religion.  Into  their  very  life  had  soaked  the 
inner  spirit  of  devotion.  Every  act  was  done  with  a 
reference  to  something  far  higher  than  itself,  to  which 
the  doer  looked  up  with  reverence  yet  with  the  sense  of 
its  possible  attainment  in  the  future.  Every  piece  of 
conduct,  every  item  of  character  was  moulded  as  if  for 
all  time.  All  their  work  they  laboured  at  with  an 
earnestness,  enthusiasm,  and  care  that  evinced  the 
consciousness  of  its  everlasting  issues.  In  short,  they 
found  that  the  surest  way  to  exclude  religion  from  the 
life  was  to  assign  to  it  a  special  section  of  time,  a 
special  profession,  and  special  edifices.  These  acted  as 
a  conduit  that  drew  it  from  the  true  business  of  ex- 
istence. Men  and  women  came  to  feel  that,  these  once 
being  set  apart,  all  was  done  that  could  be  done  for  the 
object  of  their  worship,  and  that  the  rest  of  their  life 
upon  earth  could  be  given  up  to  whatsover  pleased  them, 
be  it  irreligious,  wicked,  or  even  vile.  The  religious 
section  of  their  lives  threw  its  consecrating  and  protect- 
ing shadow  over  the  worst  they  might  do  or  say  or 
think.  Thus  came  about  the  strange  paradox  that  the 
vilest  of  criminals  were  often  the  most  devoted  to  re- 
ligion when  they  went  into  the  temples.  The  speciali- 
sation of  what  should  belong  to  the  whole  life  and 
conduct  lessens  its  value.  If  there  is  a  particular 
channel  for  religion  it  will  be  confined  to  that  chan- 
nel, except  in  rare  seasons  of  enthusiasm,  when  it  floods 
the  adjacent  regions  and  does  universal  havoc. 

Formerly  the  most  religious  had  been  the  least  trust- 
worthy in  the  ordinary  business  of  life,  and  they  had 


666  Limanora 

not  been  able  to  understand  why;  for  the  deity  they 
worshipped  was  a  compound  of  all  the  noblest  virtues 
they  could  conceive,  and  honesty  and  truth  and  con- 
stancy were  three  of  these.  Now  they  perceived  that, 
having  given  a  tithe  of  their  civilisation  and  energy  to 
the  object  of  their  worship,  they  had  shut  him  and  the 
virtues  he  embodied  out  from  the  rest;  he  had  110  claim 
on  that.  It  was  vain  for  the  creed  or  the  priests  to  in- 
sist that  the  faith  should  be  carried  into  the  life,  as 
long  as  there  was  a  special  part  of  life  dedicated  to  it. 
Once  the  pales  were  down,  and  there  was  no  distinction 
between  time  and  time,  between  place  and  place,  and 
between  act  and  act,  the  nesting-place  of  hypocrisy  dis- 
appeared. Every  day  was  sacred;  every  place  was  a 
sanctuar}7;  every  act  was  holy;  every  moment  of  their 
life,  every  action  was  a  prayer.  For  they  were  ever 
looking  upwards  and  forwards  towards  the  ideal  and 
believed  that  the  noblest  reverence  the}-  could  pay  to  the 
cosmos  and  to  the  presiding  spirit  of  the  cosmos  was  to 
raise  their  own  natures  ever  higher  in  the  cosmic  scale. 
Everything  that  withdrew  them  from  this  cultivation 
of  the  special  plot  assigned  to  them  in  the  universe, 
from  the  development  of  their  better  selves,  was  delay- 
ing the  true  purpose  of  existence;  even  acts  of  rever- 
ence and  ceremonies  of  faith  were  but  waste  of  cosmic 
energy.  As  long  as  they  kept  raising  their  struggle 
for  existence  to  a  higher  plane,  so  long  were  they  truly 
reverencing  the  greatest  being  of  all,  the  spirit  that 
gave  and  was  the  palpitating  life  of  the  cosmos. 

They  acknowledged  that  every  religion  in  its  origin 
was  a  recognition  of  unknown  elements  or  beings  far 
above  the  plane  of  the  worshippers.  But  it  rapidly 
degenerated  into  mere  parasitism  upon  its  deity.  The 
more   spiritual  faiths  in   their  earlier  stages   express 


Religion  667 

the  yearning  for  higher  scales  of  being  in  true  efforts 
to  bring  the  life  of  the  worshipper  nearer  to  that  of 
the  worshipped.  But  soon  the  curse  of  religion  conies 
upon  them;  they  try  to  include  races  on  a  lower  plane 
than  that  of  their  first  worshippers  and  moulders  and 
to  these  they  must  adapt  themselves;  for  it  is  the  mass, 
the  numbers  that  form  the  ultimate  mould  of  a  faith; 
the  noble  natures,  for  whom  they  originally  came  into 
being,  are  left  neglected  and  undeveloped,  and  the 
whole  worship  goes  lower  and  lower  to  fit  the  needs  of 
the  increasing  numbers  of  converts. 

Insignificant  though  the  Limanorans  felt  themselves 
to  be  against  the  infinity  of  the  cosmos,  they  refused 
to  formulate  their  worship  lest  it  should  fall  into  par- 
asitism, the  source  of  most  of  the  evil  and  retrogression 
in  the  universe.  They  knew  that  it  was  possible  for 
the  lower  being  to  try  to  rise  to  the  level  of  existence 
of  the  higher  and  worshipped,  and,  in  advancing,  to 
help  his  advance.  But  they  had  seen  too  much  in  his- 
tory and  in  contemporary  life  of  the  symbiosis  of  wor- 
shippers becoming  mere  parasitism  to  trust  themselves 
to  anything  definite  and  outward  in  religion.  In  daily 
intercourse  the  lower  and  weaker  natures  cling  to  the 
higher  and  stronger;  and  if  they  fail  to  reciprocate  the 
benefit  they  receive,  and  cease  to  attempt  to  elevate 
themselves  to  the  level  of  their  hosts,  then  they  suck 
the  life-blood  from  them  and  degrade  them.  The  same 
holds  in  religion.  The  mean  worshippers  (and  the 
majority  in  mixed  communities  are  mean)  make  no 
effort  to  better  themselves;  the  higher  ideal  that  they 
are  taught  to  reverence  as  a  god,  they  batten  upon  for 
favours;  they  pray  to  him  and  yearn  for  him,  not 
that  they  may  be  like  him  but  that  he  may  be  like 
them,  and  become  their  active  and  efficient  partner  in 


668  Limanora 

material  things  and  their  accomplice  in  their  mean  or 
evil  deeds.  The  Limauorans  conceived  that  all  the 
higher  beings  of  space  struggle  to  keep  clear  of  such 
parasitic  religionists  as  the  majority  of  men  are.  There 
is  no  road  up  the  steep  of  being  but  by  patient  self- 
development  through  generations  and  generations. 
Almost  all  religions,  after  their  early  and  enthusiastic 
stage,  are  royal  roads  that  seem  to  lead  to  the  heights 
of  heaven,  and  are  but  descents  to  hell.  They  only  de- 
lude men  into  thinking  that  there  are  other  ways  to 
divine  happiness  than  that  likeness  to  the  divine  nature 
which  is  to  be  attained  by  nothing  but  slow,  gradual, 
inward  change. 

They  had  seen  so  much  of  the  degeneration  and  im- 
morality of  faiths,  not  only  in  their  own  history  but  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  that  nothing  would  persuade 
them  to  formulate  or  define  in  words  what  they  meant 
by  religion  at  any  stage  of  their  development.  For, 
once  they  had  defined,  there  was  a  platform  of  self- 
opinion  and  self-interest  to  fight  for,  a  nucleus  of  petri- 
faction. Rites  and  outward  worship  would  follow,  and 
a  priesthood  whose  interest  it  would  be  to  teach  that 
what  they  profess  as  a  creed  is  absolute  truth.  Right 
well  the  L,imauorans  knew  how  false  such  teaching  is. 
No  age  can  have  a  view  of  life  that  is  not  moulded 
by  contemporaneous  circumstances  and  capacity  of 
thought  and  feeling,  and  the  farther  the  people  pass  in 
time  and  spirit  from  the  primitive  age  of  the  founders 
of  their  religion,  the  more  stoutly  will  they  uphold 
every  word  of  the  creed  and  every  feature  of  the  insti- 
tution. Nothing  but  a  sanguinary  revolution  will 
avail  to  undo  the  tragic  knot  with  which  the  spirit  of 
man  has  thus  bound  itself.     However  good  for  progress 


Religion  669 

the  enthusiasm  of  a  faith  might  be  in  its  early  stage,  it 
inevitably  became  the  tomb  of  the  human  spirit.  Oc- 
cult explanations  of  statements  that  did  not  tally  with 
acknowledged  facts  or  laws  were  bound  to  appear,  as 
soon  as  the  mind  of  the  people  began  to  move  and  de- 
velop; and  the  Limanorans  knew  that  their  marvellous 
progress  had  been  largely  due  to  the  early  resolve  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  occult  or  merely  mys- 
terious. Their  pioneering  books  dealt  with  what  still 
lay  under  the  horizon  of  the  future;  but  they  started 
from  recognised  facts  and  principles  and  attempted  to 
supply  working  hypotheses  for  the  men  of  science. 
There  was  nothing  of  magic  or  superstition  in  them, 
nothing  that  did  not  appeal  to  the  laws  of  reason 
and  ascertained  scientific  data,  nothing  that  was  not 
meant  to  be  tested  by  the  methods  of  daily  practical 
life. 

Not  that  they  never  thought  over  the  problems  that 
are  commonly  called  religious,  or  yearned  for  com- 
munion with  existences  nobler  than  their  own.  But 
their  thoughts  and  feelings  were  kept  out  of  the  sphere 
of  definite  expression,  through  fear  that  their  temporary 
solutions  might  crystallise  and  become  permanent. 
Their  faith  was  purely  individual  and  inward.  Yet, 
when  some  great  step  was  to  be  taken  in  the  onward 
march  of  the  race,  as  for  instance,  when  a  new  type  of 
child  or  enterprise  was  preparing  to  be  born,  the  whole 
community  yearned  silently  towards  the  living  spirit  of 
the  cosmos;  all  their  being  thrilled  with  one  magnetism 
that  seemed  to  quiver  upwards  through  the  ether,  and 
return  again  to  strengthen  and  console  them  in  their 
work.  Their  ideal  seemed  to  pass  as  by  an  inspiration 
into  the  child  or  the  enterprise  about  to  be  born.  The 
universe,    they  felt,  echoed  to  their  thought;   but  it 


670  Limanora 

would  have  been  desecration  to  put  their  seerlike  long- 
ing into  any  form  of  human  expression. 

This  was  the  nearest  they  came  to  what  is  called 
worship  in  other  nations.  It  was  difficult  to  get  them 
to  speak  of  it,  for  what  they  would  have  called  their 
religion  was  their  whole  life,  their  pressing  forward 
and  upward  in  development.  Their  religion  was  what 
Europeans  would  have  defined  as  the  discovery  of  God, 
rather  than  the  worship  of  any  idea  of  Him.  It  was 
based  on  the  knowledge  that  the  world  had  advanced 
from  insignificant  life  to  comparatively  noble  self-con- 
scious life,  and  it  held  firmly  that  no  finality  could 
have  yet  been  reached,  that  there  was  nobler  life  be- 
yond still  to  achieve.  Ever,  as  they  climbed  upwards 
in  development,  they  had  descried  new  ideals  on  the  far 
horizon  that  threw  into  shadow  what  they  had  been 
aiming  at.  On  and  on  would  they  still  climb,  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  ultimate  ideal  of  the  cosmos,  which 
is  God. 

Not  to  progress  was  to  be  irreligious;  even  to  look 
back  and  make  an  idol  out  of  a  superseded  ideal,  a  hero 
out  of  a  past  saviour,  was  to  sin.  There  had  been  reve- 
lations of  the  ultimate  spirit  of  the  cosmos,  but  they 
were  ever  superseded  by  the  advance  of  the  race;  for 
every  advance  to  a  new  type  was  a  revelation;  all  true 
and  developing  life  was  a  revelation.  No  revelation 
could  be  other  than  for  a  time;  it  was  sure  to  lose  its 
illuminating  power  as  the  years  or  the  generations  pro- 
gressed. Many  sacred  books  they  had  had,  books  that 
were  no  longer  sacred,  only  retaining  the  reverence  for 
that  which  had  once  aided  in  their  development.  As 
long  as  it  continued  to  hold  a  beacon  ahead  of  the  race, 
a  book  remained  sacred,  but  once  its  ideal  had  been 
overtaken  by  the  national  progress,  light  died  out  of  it. 


Religion  671 

For  a  dead  book  that  retained  its  sacredness  became 
a  fetich  and  obstructed  development.  Not  only  did 
they  reverence  their  sacred  books;  every  noble  utter- 
ance, every  noble  act,  that  held  out  an  ideal  for  men  to 
strive  after  was  as  sacred;  but  as  soon  as  the  sentiment 
or  thought  or  morality  was  seen  to  be  merely  of  the 
past,  it  was  set  aside.  Nothing  could  possibly  be  final 
in  a  universe  that  was  ever  developing,  with  faculties 
and  powers  of  observation  that  were  ever  getting  more 
capable  of  comprehending  new  phases  and  energies  of 
the  cosmos.  To  accept  a  book  or  a  faith  or  an  ideal  as 
finally  sacred  was  to  offend  against  the  ultimate,  the 
free  spirit  of  the  cosmos  which  was  ever  leading  on- 
wards to  new  heights  and  new  outlooks  into  the  future. 
There  was  no  outer  worship  except  life  and  all  its 
works.  All  other  worship  was  waste  of  time  and  effort 
which  might  have  been  used  to  raise  the  worshippers 
in  the  scale  of  being.  Every  attempt  to  conciliate  God 
or  imagine  Him  or  model  Him  was  blasphemy  against 
the  effort  to  rise  towards  Him.  But  every  man  had 
his  own  religious  thoughts  in  silence,  and  there  was 
welding  the  whole  race  to  a  common  purpose,  a  mag- 
netic sympathy  which  was  deeply  religious;  it  was  the 
sympathy  with  every  thought  that  tended  to  advance. 
But  all  vain  contemplation  or  self-reflection  not  leading 
to  a  progressive  purpose  was  waste  of  life  and  therefore 
evil.  For  evil,  they  held,  is  the  rebellion  of  the  past 
against  the  future;  and  though  a  new  religion  is  an 
effort  of  nature  to  make  alliance  with  the  future,  it 
soon,  by  reason  of  having  reached  or  seeming  to  have 
reached  its  ideal,  crystallises  and  becomes  the  ally  of 
the  past.  The  spirit  of  stagnancy  and  retrogression, 
what  we  in  Christendom  would  call  the  devil,  laughs  at 
new  religions  and  counts  old  religions  as  its  best  allies; 


672  Limanora 

so  ran  a  common  maxim  of  theirs.  They  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  what  would  withdraw  any  current 
of  their  life  energy  from  the  great  work  of  advance. 

If  there  was  any  division  of  their  race  that  could  be 
said  to  approach  to  a  priesthood,  it  was  the  men  and 
women  of  science,  especially  the  pioneers,  or  the  imagi- 
native amongst  them;  for  they  had  their  eyes  bent  un- 
flinchingly on  the  future.  Theirs  it  was  to  see  that  the 
race  was  ever  advancing.  They  never  suffered  the  pres- 
ent to  interfere  with  the  development  that  was  to  be. 
They  stirred  their  fellow-IJmanorans  to  the  enthusiasm 
of  anticipation,  and  watched  with  unfaltering  jealousy 
every  glance  turned  upon  the  past.  The  moments 
spent  upon  history  and  antiquarian  research  they 
counted  lost,  unless  their  aim  was  to  throw  illumina- 
tion upon  the  future.  Mere  students  of  the  past  were 
backsliders,  whom  they  had  to  chide  for  their  offences 
against  the  evolution  of  the  cosmos.  They  held  up  to 
the  eyes  of  their  countrymen  the  nobleness  and  beaut}* 
of  the  ideals  that  were  to  be  soon  attained,  or,  if  need 
were,  the  sublimity  of  those  that  lay  just  under  the 
horizon  in  the  dimness  of  twilight. 

They  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  mere  n^ster)', 
the  basis  of  all  superstition.  They  never  lost  sight  of 
the  margin  of  the  half-known  that  was  ever  receding 
before  the  advance  of  investigation  into  the  dark  in- 
finitude, but  they  would  have  no  dealings  with  it  be- 
yond the  gaze  of  scientific  imagination  as  it  planted 
itself  upon  the  heights  of  already  achieved  knowledge. 
Such  dealings  led  to  gross  superstition  and  charlatanry, 
to  pretence  of  more  intercourse  with  the  unknown  than 
was  warranted  by  the  knowledge  of  the  time;  there 
was  no  standard  b}'  which  they  could  be  measured  or 
checked,  and,  if  once  thejT  were  allowed,  they  would 


Religion  673 

give  unlimited  scope  for  self-deceit  and  imposture. 
Faith  was  a  matter  for  silent  meditation  and  for  dream; 
speech  or  act  would  only  bring  it  down  to  the  dull  level 
of  memory.  The  faith  they  spoke  of  was  faith  in  the 
great  future  of  man,  and  the  pioneers  were  encouraged 
to  sketch  out  and  foreshadow  its  possibilities  by  way 
of  dream;  but  that  dream  was  ever  the  best  which 
traced  the  whole  faith  through  practice  to  complete 
achievement. 

One  of  the  great  imaginative  books  of  the  time 
mapped  out  the  route  of  self  abnegation;  it  described 
the  denial  of  the  lower  or  material  self,  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  it  to  insignificance  in  the  human  system.  It 
showed  how  by  such  means  and  by  meditation  a  man 
of  lofty  thought  might  comprehend  the  whole  range 
of  the  universe,  and,  passing  from  spiritual  height  to 
spiritual  height,  at  last  be  capable  of  gathering  infin- 
itude within  the  scope  of  his  soul.  Thus  could  he  ap- 
proach to  communion  with  the  heart  and  soul  of  the 
cosmos,  with  the  sun  of  all  things.  Not  in  one  genera- 
tion would  this  be  accomplished.  But,  b}r  the  selection 
of  parents  who  had  wrought  such  a  habit  of  thought 
and  life  into  their  constitutions,  they  might  have  in  a 
century  of  generations  beings  who  were  all  spirit  un- 
hampered by  physical  modes  of  thought  and  feeling. 

Not  even  this  ideal  man  of  the  future  would  they 
worship.  For  he  would  still  be  man,  infinities  short  of 
the  highest  he  could  be  in  the  cosmos;  and  nothing 
short  of  absolute  perfection  should  be  the  object  of  so 
intense  a  concentration  and  prostration  of  the  soul  as 
worship.  To  accept  any  mere  embodiment  of  humanity 
as  the  centre  of  adoration  was  antagonistic  to  their 
great  ethical  maxim  that  the  ultimate  object  of  ever)r 
action  or  desire   should   be   higher  than  the  highest 


674  Limanora 

existing  human  life.  To  worship  even  the  idea  of  hu- 
manity, were  it  possible  for  a  spirit  with  its  feelings 
and  imagination  limited  to  human  moulds,  would  lower 
the  aspirations  of  thought;  apart  from  the  difficulties 
of  its  abstractness,  it  would  be  open  to  the  objection  of 
obstructing  progress  by  setting  up  a  deity  who  was  but 
an  amalgam  of  all  the  failings,  as  well  as  all  the  virtues, 
of  mankind.  The  Limanorans  smiled  at  the  ineptitude 
of  making  so  imperfect  creatures  as  ourselves  the  chief 
elements  of  godhead,  when  there  were  such  infinitudes 
around  us  and  above  us,  and  such  eternities  before  us. 
Even  if  it  should  be  possible  to  eliminate  from  the  hu- 
man idea  of  deity  all  but  progress  and  the  noblest 
virtue,  it  would  be  obviously  absurd  to  worship  an 
ideal  that  was  soon,  with  the  earth  it  dwelt  on,  to 
vanish  in  the  dust,  vapour,  and  heat  of  cosmic  collision. 
All  open  worship  was  inevitably  hampered,  they  held, 
by  the  limitations  of  human  nature;  and  anthropo- 
morphic it  must  be,  despite  all  efforts  to  bar  out  the 
human  from  it,  and  as  anthropomorphic,  certain  to 
be  antiquated  by  any  real  progress  on  the  part  of  the 
worshippers. 

These  elements  in  religions  make  them  the  enemies 
of  all  advance  except  perhaps  advance  in  luxury. 
Their  guardians  feel  that  they  are  sure  to  be  super- 
seded if  the  spirit  of  man  should  rise  above  the  condi- 
tions in  which  the  worships  were  moulded.  It  is  one 
of  the  strongest  yearnings  of  life  to  remain  as  it  is;  only 
there  are  forces  material  and  spiritual  ever  goading  it 
on  the  path  of  advance,  threatening  inferiority  or  defeat 
or  death,  unless  it  goes  on.  But  so  infinitesimal  is  the 
progress  thus  made  under  the  sting  of  natural  law  that 
it  is  scarcely  noticeable  in  periods  short  of  hundreds  of 
generations;  few  or  no  nations  or  races  have  retained 


Religion  675 

historic  dominance  or  even   historic  consciousness  of 
their  past  so  long. 

This  unconscious  meliorism  was  considered  by  the 
Limanorans  as  little  better  than  the  development  of 
animals,  when  left  to  themselves.  Only  deliberate 
effort  on  the  part  of  a  state  and  its  members  can  pro- 
duce advance  that  is  to  be  felt,  or  that  acts  as  a  stimulus 
to  farther  advance.  It  is  seldom  that  unconscious  pro- 
gress is  other  than  material,  whilst  it  inevitably  entails 
reaction  into  stagnancy  or  retrogression.  Nay,  the 
whole  human  race  at  times  takes  a  run  forward,  and 
then  stumbles  and  falls,  only  to  slide  back  into  its  old 
footprints.  Some  new  impulse,  sweeping  through  the 
ether,  has  stirred  men  in  each  race,  whose  enthusiasm, 
or,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  inspiration,  awakens  the 
spirit  of  progress  in  the  era. 

Conservatism  is  the  native  or  fundamental  attitude 
of  every  being,  the  tendency  to  make  the  rest  of  the 
adjacent  world  give  way  that  it  may  perpetuate  its  ex- 
istence or  that  of  its  brood.  Selfishness  is  thus  the 
very  texture  of  life,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it  can 
engender  its  opposite,  self-sacrifice.  The  sexual  and 
the  parental  instincts  are  the  crude  material  of  the  lat- 
ter. But  the  fire  of  thought  and  enthusiastic  impulse 
is  needed  to  refine  this  material  into  a  love  that 
stretches  beyond  the  immediate  object  of  these  instincts 
and  takes  in  the  interests  of  the  race  and  last  of  all  those 
of  mankind;  something  higher  and  more  alien  to  the 
instincts  of  man  is  demanded  for  the  comprehension  of 
his  nobler  development.  In  the  valley  of  memories 
was  shown  me  at  one  stage  of  my  education  a  complete 
elucidation  of  the  prehistoric  phases  of  evolution;  first 
came  the  struggle  for  life  amongst  the  innumerable 
claimants  for   the   mastery  of  the    new  earth,  those 


676  Limanora 

elementary  forms  that,  coming  out  of  space,  will  settle 
on  any  world  new  or  old  that  they  may  encounter,  the 
advanced  organisations  seeking  only  orbs  well-fitted  for 
their  progress.  Across  the  geological  ages  I  could  see 
this  competition  raising  the  minute  cells  of  the  primeval 
creatures  into  elaborately  organised  beings.  I  saw  sex 
save  the  new  existence  from  the  dominion  of  mere  brute 
appetite.  But  from  outside  the  world  came  the  trans- 
formation which  made  it  the  saviour  of  man,  the  ul- 
timately dominant  animal  upon  the  sphere.  This 
transformed  instinct  expanded  by  slow  steps  love  of 
children  into  love  of  race,  then  into  philanthropy,  at 
first  bland  and  crude  and  often  unreal  in  the  presence 
of  the  old  sensual  and  family  love,  but  finally  strong 
and  noble  and  able  to  embrace  the  progress  of  man  as  a 
spirit.  The  last  stage  overleapt  the  prehistoric,  and 
came  to  be  limited,  except  in  rare  and  isolated  instances, 
to  Limanora.  Enlightened  philanthropy,  I  could  see, 
held  the  attempt  to  reform  all  mankind  as  vain  as  to 
convert  the  lower  animals  into  the  human  form  and 
nature.  Once  more  I  went  back  into  Fialume  and 
studied  the  panorama  of  evolution,  and  I  recognised 
the  full  meaning  of  it;  the  great  impulses  upwards  and 
forwards  had  come  from  outside  the  world,  and  chiefest 
of  all  the  longing  to  evolve  a  human  nature  to  which 
death  would  be  but  an  insignificant  step  from  life  to 
life,  and  which  would  recognise  in  itself  more  and  more 
affinity  to  the  highest  life  of  infinite  space. 

But  this  section  of  Fialume  only  gave  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  the  elevation  of  life  upon  the  earth.  None 
were  allowed  to  linger  after  they  had  drawn  from  it  the 
lesson  and  the  force  it  could  give  them  for  marching 
forward.  Minuter  study  of  the  past  might  lead  their 
youth  to  think  ignobly  of  life  and  to  accept  "  Might  is 


Religion  677 

right"  as  its  fundamental  maxim.  Nature,  as  seen 
amongst  the  ravening  beasts  or  amongst  the  naked 
cruelty  and  injustice  of  primitive  men,  might  be  taken 
by  them  as  dominant  through  all  human  evolution.  If 
any  history  was  to  be  studied  minutely,  it  was  only  the 
more  recent  history  of  their  own  race,  where  the  old 
laws  of  nature  that  were  opposed  to  justice  and  char- 
ity and  self-sacrifice  have  been  sublimated  and  trans- 
cended, where  new  senses  have  opened  gateways  for  a 
new  knowledge  which  would  once  have  been  called  su- 
persensible. What  could  this  people  learn  from  the 
study  of  lapsed  civilisations,  that  had  risen  out  of 
childish  savagery  only  to  fall  back  again  ?  The  sole 
aim  of  these  was  happiness,  and  this  ever  degenerated 
into  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  ending  sooner  or  later  in 
brutal  selfishness.  It  had  been  one  of  the  earlier  in- 
stincts from  their  post-purgation  life,  that  they  have 
least  happiness  who  think  most  of  it.  Happiness,  or 
even  pleasure,  might  be  made  at  times  the  test  of  suc- 
cessful actions  and  pursuits;  but  it  never  should  be 
made  an  aim  in  itself.  Higher  civilisations  were  less 
happy  than  savagery  or  barbarism;  their  advances  in 
commerce  and  even  in  science  only  added  more  con- 
sciousness of  misery  to  the  many,  and  more  eagerness 
for  new  luxury  to  the  few.  Most  civilisations,  as  they 
advance,  merely  add  to  the  desires  and  thus  more 
effectually  enslave  human  nature  to  locality  and  time. 
The  newer  types  produce  no  greater  intellects,  no 
greater  imaginations,  than  those  that  have  lived  and 
fallen,  whilst  their  masses  have  greatly  receded  in 
happiness  and  in  simplicity  of  virtue.  The  changes  of 
what  is  commonly  called  progress  only  bring  new  evils 
that  have  to  be  cured,  and  the  energetic  minority  who 
have  produced  the  changes  and  suppose  themselves  to 


678  Limanora 

benefit  by  them  at  first  refuse  to  see  the  evils,  and  after 
a  time  are  driven  to  attempt  their  cure  by  drastic 
remedies  which  bring  universal  ruin  all  the  quicker. 

The  Limanoran  horizon  was  too  rapidly  widening  to 
allow  of  more  than  the  most  cursory  survey  of  the  de- 
generate past  or  of  the  contemporary  present,  even  had 
it  been  to  their  interests  to  study  them  more  minutely. 
Their  own  future  was  expanding  in  so  many  directions 
as  to  demand  all  their  energies.  World  after  world, 
star  after  star,  universe  after  universe,  were  revealing 
their  character  and  stage  of  development  to  Limanoran 
science.  New  marvels  every  year  impressed  upon  them 
the  wisdom  of  avoiding  all  denial  and  scepticism  with 
regard  to  what  imagination  or  faith  should  suggest,  of 
holding  neutrality  towards  all  that  was  unprovable  or 
even  contrary  to  their  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature. 
They  ventured  only  in  the  safe  track  of  facts,  whence 
they  shot  their  flashes  of  conjecture  into  the  dark.  But 
from  past  experience  they  learned  to  distrust  denial  or 
even  scepticism  in  regions  where  knowledge  could  not 
venture  yet.  Imagination  had  been  found  a  trusty 
pioneer,  and  one  of  their  recent  books  held  out  the 
hope  that  before  long  the  suggestions  of  faith  might  be 
but  the  messages  which  flew  through  the  ether  over 
what  might  be  called  a  cosmic  telegraph,  and  that, 
where  these  touched  the  souls  of  the  noblest,  they  came 
from  the  central  spirit  of  the  cosmos. 

Already  they  were  far  on  the  way  along  several  lines 
towards  such  a  consummation,  and  modifications  of 
their  ooloran  or  sonarchitect  had  been  employed  in 
many  channels  of  cosmic  investigation.  They  had 
long  ago  conjectured  that  the  earth's  atmosphere,  act- 
ing as  a  gigantic  ooloran,  gathered  the  sound-waves 
that  travelled  through  space  and  used  them  to  shape 


Religion  679 

the  things  of  the  earth,  as  they  came  into  being;  and 
recent  discoveries  had  almost  turned  the  conjecture 
into  fact.  Sometimes  the  vibrations  came  from  an  in- 
choate or  a  degenerate  world ;  and  then,  as  in  the  earlier 
or  saurian  stage  of  animal  life  and  development,  the 
terrene  creatures  took  monstrous  shape  under  the  re- 
sonator of  the  atmosphere.  Sometimes  they  came  from 
orbs  that  knew  only  beauty  and  grace  of  form;  and 
then,  as  when  the  plants  and  trees  and  flowers  and 
shells  of  the  earth  were  branching  into  new  species,  few 
terrestrial  things  but  fell  into  graceful  moulds.  And 
now,  having  struck  this  far-reaching  and  fundamental 
thought,  they  turned  it  to  noble  use.  They  produced 
a  huge  modification  of  the  ooloran  which  would  fix 
upon  the  shape  of  a  flower  or  fern  or  shell,  and  trans- 
late it  into  the  music  that  had  originally  moulded  it. 
Nothing  earthly  but  would  yield  to  them  through  this 
reversed  sonarchitect  the  sonant  or  other  vibrations 
that  had  at  first  shaped  it.  Step  by  step  this  new  art 
which  interpreted  the  moulding  influences  of  the  uni- 
verse advanced  into  an  organised  and  scientific  division 
of  the  duties  of  the  race.  Step  by  step  it  mastered  the 
harmony  of  form,  and  gave  the  people  the  music  that 
rang  through  interstellar  space  at  the  shaping  of  the 
beautiful  things  of  the  world. 

A  great  book  of  the  time  showed  how  far  the  art 
could  go  in  leading  their  religion  from  the  silent  to  the 
sonant  form.  There  were  vibrations  throughout  the 
cosmos  that  came  from  no  one  of  the  worlds  or  their 
inhabitants.  They  emanated  from  the  centre  of  all 
existence,  whence  they  had  mysteriously  moulded  the 
spirits  of  great  reformers  and  sages;  they  were  the 
voice  of  God  ringing  down  through  the  aisles  of  crea- 
tion.    It  was  now  not  only  possible,  but  within  the 


68o  Limanora 

limits  of  the  practicable,  to  find  by  the  aid  of  one  of 
their  new  sonarchitects  the  cosmic  harmonies  that  had 
moulded  the  souls  of  the  great  enthusiasts  and  sages  of 
the  world.  They  might  translate  the  voice  of  God  into 
the  vibrations  that  would  appeal,  if  not  to  their  ear,  to 
their  higher  and  more  recent  senses.  The  seemingly 
fantastic  groupings  of  stars  would  send  into  their  minds 
the  divine  secret  guiding  their  movements.  Nearer 
and  nearer  would  they  creep  under  the  great  dome 
of  heaven  to  the  centre  of  energy,  whose  voice  these 
vibrations  were.  True  religion  though  this  might  be, 
never  would  they  consent  to  fix  it  in  creed  or  cere- 
monial. On  and  on  must  their  art  of  musical  sonarchi- 
tecture  go,  keeping  pace  with  their  ever-advancing 
science,  but  never  reaching  finality  in  interpreting  the 
voice  of  God. 

Nothing  in  fact  could  be  nearer  to  what  other  men 
call  religion  than  Limanoran  science;  it  was  never 
weary  of  listening  to  the  voice  of  God  in  the  cosmos 
and  ever  looked  upwards  and  onwards  to  a  wider  and 
loftier  creation.  It  refused  to  look  back,  unless  the 
retrospect  was  to  assist  its  march  forward.  vEvery  dis- 
covery was  the  truest  act  of  devotion,  a  step  nearer  to 
the  centre  of  being;  and  anything  that  would  obstruct 
such  discoveries  or  the  advance  they  stimulated  was 
retrogressive,  a  sin  against  the  being  who  was  drawing 
all  things  into  the  path  of  development.  Fixity  of  be- 
liefs was  the  surest  obstruction  to  progress,  and,  along 
with  all  superstition,  the  grossest  immorality. 

There  was  no  evil  inherent  in  matter  or  any  of  the 
lower  forms  of  life.  Evil  lay  in  returning  to  one  of 
these  after  knowing  and  fulfilling  something  higher. 
It  is  this  against  which  the  human  spirit  girds  when 


Religion  68 1 

its  lower  elements  at  death  go  back  into  the  grave. 
For,  the  L,imauorans  held,  matter  is  not  to  be  rigidly 
divided  from  spirit  as  something  contrastive  and  an- 
tagonistic. They  saw  none  of  the  strict  divisions  in 
nature  that  Western  science  and  philosophy  knew,  ar- 
ranging terrene  things  into  matter  and  spirit,  man  and 
beast,  and  cosmic  things  into  God  and  the  world. 
Matter  was  vital  and  moving,  as  spirit  was,  though  not 
in  the  same  degree.  Animals  were  ever  on  the  same 
path  of  evolution  as  man  was,  though  most  species  of 
them  were  far  behind  most  of  mankind.  The  worlds 
were  the  speech  of  God,  methods  of  manifesting  Him- 
self and  of  making  His  lower  manifestations  evolve 
into  higher.  There  were  gradations  throughout  the 
cosmos,  and  the  boundaries  between  them  were  difficult 
to  discern. 

Man  is  the  highest  grade  that  man  knows  definitely; 
for  human  personality  is  the  amalgam  of  the  knowing 
and  the  known.  The  animal  as  higher  than  the  vege- 
table knows  the  world  as  separate  from  itself,  but  it  does 
not  know  or  study  itself  as  a  world  apart;  nor  can  it  be 
conscious  of  the  general  being  or  purpose  of  the  uni- 
verse. Man  is  the  first  animal  on  earth,  so  far  as  we 
know,  that  has  gained  self-consciousness,  and,  through 
self-consciousness,  a  glimmering  vision  of  what  God 
might  be.  Only  by  love  of  retrogression  or  sin  can  this 
higher  element  in  him  return  into  the  ocean  of  decay 
again.  The  other  parts  and  elements  of  his  system 
have  to  suffer  reformation  like  exhausted  worlds,  in 
order  that  they  may  rise  higher  than  the}'  have  been. 

This  was  one  direction  their  science  took  in  finding 
its  way  towards  the  highest  of  all  grades  of  being.  But 
it  had  other  lines  of  as  truly  religious  investigation. 
For  example,  it  had  found  as  it  proceeded  more  and 


682  Limanora 

more  subtle  mediums  of  energy  in  the  universe,  medi- 
ums which  had  long  evaded  the  rude  cognisance  of 
their  primitive  senses  but  which  now  yielded  the  secret 
of  their  presence,  first  to  their  imaginations,  then  to 
their  refined  apparatus,  and  last  of  all  to  their  more 
recently  developed  senses.  The  energies  that  came 
through  them  were  impressed  upon  their  senses  before 
the  mediums  themselves  were;  and  not  till  the  senses 
were  touched  would  the  reason  be  finally  persuaded  of 
their  existence.  It  took  long  ages  to  refine  their  senses 
or  develop  new  senses  up  to  the  power  of  detecting  new 
energies  or  the  mediums  through  which  these  travelled. 
Imagination  led  the  way;  but  its  lead  could  not  be 
trusted  unless  guided  by  scientific  fact  and  method. 
Its  most  trustworthy  henchman  was  invention;  for  this 
supplied  apparatus  that  increased  the  perceptive  pow- 
ers of  the  senses  a  thousandfold.  And,  as  their  senses 
grew  in  refinement,  the  instruments  they  invented  to 
aid  them  increased  in  subtlety  and  magnifying  power, 
so  that  they  were  ever  able  to  keep  well  in  advance  of 
their  own  unassisted  perceptive  faculties. 

Their  sciences  too  had  grown  subtler  and  farther- 
reaching  in  their  methods  every  generation.  To  their 
older  chemistry,  for  instance,  the  atoms  had  but  a 
speculative  existence.  The  newer,  with  magnetism 
and  electricity  as  its  main  agents  and  the  clirolans  as 
chief  aids,  dealt  with  them  directly;  and  a  still  more 
marvellous  analysis  was  developing  which,  adding  will- 
force  to  magnetism  and  electricity  as  reagents,  could 
find  the  mediums  of  nervous  energy  and  classify  its 
various  kinds  and  modes  of  action.  By  means  of  this 
analysis  they  were  able  to  get  at  the  physical  basis  of 
reflex  action,  desire,  appetite,  and  the  various  other 
semi-spiritual  phenomena  of  humanity. 


Religion  683 

A  book  of  the  time  pointed  out  a  science  as  far  be- 
yond this  as  this  had  been  beyond  the  older  chemistry, 
for  there  were  far  subtler  and  higher  media  of  energy 
to  be  discovered  and  analysed  than  those  of  appetite 
and  desire.  Subtlest  of  all  must  be  that  in  which  the 
energy  called  soul  moved.  It  appeared  predominantly 
in  none  but  the  higher  types  of  the  human  race,  the 
men  and  women  of  wise  creative  power.  Others  had  it 
as  a  faint  aroma  which  asserted  itself  only  in  moments 
of  great  enthusiasm  over  the  gross  powers  of  appetite 
and  passion  and  at  other  times  seemed  almost  to  vanish. 
In  the  Umanorans  it  had  grown  to  be  dominant  over 
all  the  faculties  and  powers  of  the  human  system.  The 
book  foresaw  that  the  medium  of  this  noble  energy 
would  be  found  akin  to  that  of  the  central  energy  of 
the  cosmos,  the  great  being  whose  phases  and  manifest- 
ations were  stars  and  universes.  And  the  loftier  the 
mind,  the  more  of  this  medium  did  it  possess,  and  the 
clearer  affinity  it  had  with  the  creative  power  of  infin- 
itude. Not  far  below  this  was  the  medium  in  which 
the  energy  of  morality  moved;  and  the  higher  the 
morality  the  more  sympathetic  was  its  medium  with 
that  of  creation.  The  new  science  foreshadowed  by  the 
book  would  display  to  the  advanced  race  of  the  future 
the  movements  of  these  finer  media,  and  the  modes  of 
action  by  which  moral  energy  and  spiritual  and  creative 
energy  worked  through  them. 

Then  would  they  see  their  way  to  such  continuance 
of  their  life  as  would  seem  to  other  men  practical  im- 
mortality. They  would  be  able  so  to  refine  and  sub- 
limate the  energies  of  their  systems  and  the  media 
through  which  they  acted,  as  to  be  free  from  any  of 
the  transformations  called  death  for  almost  measureless 
periods  of  time.     For  the  subtler  the  medium,  the  more 


684  Limanora 

self-existent  is  the  energy  that  moves  in  it,  the  less  is 
it  subject  to  change  and  the  less  it  needs  change  in 
order  to  fulfil  the  purpose  of  all  being.  The  nearer  to 
creative  power  an  energy  comes,  the  less  it  needs  alli- 
ance with  grosser  and  more  perishable  media  in  order 
to  rise  in  the  scale  of  existence;  decay  and  death  be- 
come rarer  and  rarer  incidents.  As  yet  Limanoran 
science  had  not  discovered  absolute  immortality;  nor 
did  it  seem  likely  to  discover  it.  Its  experience  of  the 
cosmos  pointed  to  change  as  the  most  widely  spread  of 
all  principles;  whatsoever  is  allied  with  any  lower 
media  must  shed  them,  or  in  other  words  suffer  death, 
if  it  is  to  continue  its  march  upwards;  the  whole  history 
of  the  earth  was  a  continual  record  of  these  transform- 
ations. The  Iyimanorans  had  taken  this  aim  of  terres- 
trial existence  into  their  own  hands,  and  by  gradually 
rejecting  the  grosser  and  shorter-lived  elements  of  their 
system,  they  had  been  able  to  extend  their  life,  at  first 
to  hundreds,  and  afterwards  to  thousands  of  years. 
They  now  saw  before  them  a  limitless  vista  along  which 
the  necessity  of  death  or  transformation  would  be 
hunted  farther  and  farther  from  birth.  And  the  same 
story  they  saw  written  all  over  the  cosmos,  energy  as 
it  becomes  purer  and  subtler  and  less  dependent  for 
evolution  upon  lower  forms  approaching  nearer  and 
nearer  to  what  would  seem  immortality  from  the  hu- 
man point  of  view,  coming  closer  and  closer  to  the 
creative  energy  of  the  cosmos.  To  them  therefore  all 
their  life  was  religion,  and  science  was  its  true  hiero- 
phant. 

If  the  analytic  sciences  like  chemistry  revealed  a  path 
that  led  the  minds  of  men  towards  God,  the  wide- 
ranged  sciences  like  astronomy,  astrobiology,  and  as- 
tromagnetism  might  themselves  be  called  the  highways 


Religion  685 

to  God.  The  embodied  energy  and  life  of  the  earth  on 
this  side  of  death  seem  to  the  human  mind  self-explan- 
atory and  self- involved;  but  the  enfranchised  life  and 
energy  that  fill  space  have  no  human  philosophy  to 
account  for  them  and  have  generally  been  denied  by 
men.  The  Eimanoran  sciences  had  found  space,  as  far 
as  they  could  investigate  it  with  their  senses  and  their 
instruments,  no  less  full  of  energy  and  life  than  the 
world  itself,  not  merely  the  infinitesimal  and  attenuated 
life  that  the}'  thought  the  debris  of  other  worlds  and 
systems,  but  the  enfranchised  life  of  highly  organised 
beings,  most  of  it  so  subtle  and  noble  as  to  evade  even 
the  new  senses  of  the  Limaiiorans.  It  was  the  life  of 
such  beings  that  the  science  of  this  people  aimed  at 
knowing  intimately.  On  some  stars,  they  were  cer- 
tain, existed  inhabitants  subtly  enough  organised  to 
cognise  this  interstellar  life  without  aid  of  instruments; 
and  they  seemed  themselves  to  be  on  the  verge  of 
attaining  such  a  power.  When  they  gained  it,  they 
might  hold  intercourse  with  that  disembodied  energy 
which  perchance  has  close  affinity  with  the  soul  of  God. 
Towards  this  higher,  enfranchised  energy  they  laboured 
and  struggled  incessantly.  They  believed  that  its  ex- 
istence could  be  accounted  for  only  on  the  assumption 
of  some  perennial  fountain  of  free  energy  in  the  cosmos; 
that  there  must  be  some  great  centre  of  completely 
enfranchised  energy ;  the  course  of  cosmic  evolution 
pointed  that  way,  and  every  so-called  death  or  dissolu- 
tion was  but  the  enfranchisement  of  some  higher  type 
of  energy  from  the  lower  forms  with  which  it  had  been 
for  a  time  allied.  Even  the  fixed  nuclei  of  energy, 
what  were  called  matter  and  the  atoms,  were  ever 
aiming  at  liberation  of  the  energy  that  formed  their 
essence.     Every  dissolution,  every  step  higher  in  the 


686  Limanora 

gradation,  implied  an  ultimate  energy  that  was  free 
from  all  the  trammels  of  lower  forms.  This  must  be  the 
life  of  pure  thought  that  sees  time  past  and  time  to  be 
as  clearly  as  time  present,  that  takes  in  the  cosmos  at 
a  glance,  that  needs  no  sustenance  from  lower  energies, 
and  suffers  no  birth  or  dissolution.  Towards  this  the 
whole  cosmos  strives;  and  perhaps  there  may  be  a  time 
in  the  history  of  existence  when  all  the  fixed  forms  of 
energy  shall  have  evolved  into  the  free  form,  till  at  last 
there  is  nothing  but  space  and  disembodied  thought 
which  is  universally  perceptive  and  creative  without 
the  aid  of  mediums  of  energy  or  senses.  Vast  systems 
of  worlds  have  come  and  gone  in  the  infinite  past  only 
to  distil  the  energy  that  was  in  them  through  living 
beings  up  into  the  final  and  immortal  form  that  needs 
no  process  of  dissolution  or  migration  to  purify  it. 

When  they  turned  back  from  these  heights  to  view 
the  history  of  the  earth,  it  seemed  to  them  that  creative 
thought  was  written  all  over  it;  could  there  be  any 
clearer  manifestation  of  the  vast  intelligence  informing 
the  whole  than  this  marvellous  elaboration  of  genus 
and  species  raising  terrestrial  life  step  by  step  upwards 
from  the  microbe  to  the  highest  type  of  man  ?  Their 
astronomical  sciences  pointed  still  more  unmistakably 
upwards  to  the  fountain  of  creative  thought.  The  evo- 
lution of  stars  and  systems  and  of  life  upon  them 
seemed  to  them  but  the  history  of  the  intelligence  of 
infinitude.  They  deliberately  avoided  all  conventional 
idea  of  the  thought  of  the  cosmos,  yet  were  ever  tempted 
through  desire  of  firm  ground  to  use  the  analogy  of 
a  living  terrene  thing.  Just  as  the  body  of  a  plant 
or  animal  is  ever  decaying,  ever  renewing  itself,  so  is 
this  cosmos,  the  material  existence,  the  body  of  the 
spirit  we  call  God,  ever  decaying,  ever  renewing  itself, 


Religion  687 

ever  raising  its  energies  into  higher  and  higher  forms. 
The  universes  and  systems  are  molecules,  the  stars  the 
atoms,  of  the  infinite  body  of  the  cosmos,  and  each  one 
of  them  is  moving  and  developing  in  strict  relation  to 
all  the  others  and  to  the  abiding  spirit  that  is  their  aim 
and  master.  There  is  law  or  thought  guiding  the  his- 
tory of  every  one  of  them  and  nothing  of  them  is  lost; 
the  energy  of  everything  that  seems  to  die  has  but  dis- 
tilled elsewhere,  or  transmuted  into  something  higher 
and  less  localised.  What  seems  to  us  decay  is  but  the 
liberation  of  an  energy  from  the  less  refined  forms  with 
which  it  has  been  allied.  Every  process  moves  in 
rhythm  to  the  pulsations  of  everlasting  thought  that 
is,  and  realises  all  that  was  and  is  and  is  to  be.  No- 
thing falls  by  accident.  All  is  transformation,  growth, 
development  towards  self-subsistent  thought,  which 
moves  through  all  the  processes,  conscious  of  itself 
and  of  them  all.  To  this  final  spirit  of  the  cosmos  ten 
thousand  ages  are  but  as  a  moment.  The  myriads  of 
millions  of  years  that  some  stars  live,  and  that  crush 
our  puny  thoughts  with  their  vastness,  are  but  one 
heartbeat  of  God.  The  whirling  universes  are  but 
molecules  looked  at  from  the  view-point  of  the  final 
spirit;  our  telescopic  is  his  microscopic. 

Thitherwards  all  their  astronomy  pointed.  Round 
our  sun  move  our  planets  without  failure  of  harmony, 
and  ever  round  some  still  farther  point  moves  our  sun 
and  his  satellites,  as  thousands  of  other  suns  and  sys- 
tems do.  Nor  did  the  epicycloidal  movement  cease 
there;  great  systems  of  universes  have  still  more  inward 
centres.  But  all  this  infinitude  of  concentricism  points 
to  some  ultimate  centre  which  is  again  the  pivot  of  the 
cosmos.  Following  their  analogy  from  man,  they  oc- 
casionally allowed  themselves  to  think  that  this  was 


688  Limanora 

tbe  brain  of  God,  the  concentration  of  His  thought- 
energy.  But  they  refused  to  let  the  analogy  master 
them;  they  threw  it  off  as  but  a  metaphor  and  waited  for 
clearer  and  farther- reaching  light.  To  define  what  lay 
so  far  beyond  their  horizon  was  to  falsify;  and  they 
knew  too  well  from  their  own  past  history  into  what 
labyrinths  of  error  a  single  untruth  will  lead  a  race, 
especially  if  it  is  planted  and  watered  by  religion. 

Only  where  science  flashed  its  light  forth  into  the 
darkness  would  they  dare  to  define  any  feature  or  form 
of  religion.  God,  they  felt,  was  the  infinite  conserva- 
tion of  energy.  Up  an  infinite  scale  it  ever  climbed 
towards  the  ultimate,  the  purest  of  all  energies,  the 
divine,  the  goal  to  which  creation  groaned  and  strug- 
gled. The  grosser  forms  of  energy  were  the  caput  mor- 
tuum  of  former  mixed  beings  and  worlds,  after  the 
sublimation  of  their  purest  elements.  Out  of  this 
residue  in  its  new  period  of  probation  were  distilled 
again  energies  that  swept  upwards.  If  such  lapses 
from  the  universal  progress  of  the  cosmos  occur  in  self- 
conscious  forms,  as  in  the  soul  of  man,  then  are  they 
breaches  of  morality,  or,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
all,  sins.  Conversion  is  the  entrance  of  consciousness 
of  the  universal  law  and  of  willing  obedience  to  it  into 
the  nature.  Religious  and  moral  codes  are  strivings 
after  it  and,  unfortunately,  attempts  to  define  it  that 
soon  falsify  its  spirit.  Miracles  are  fore-glimpses  of  this 
law  of  progress  half-understood,  intrusions  of  an  energ)- 
loftier  than  the  sect  or  circle  or  star  has  been  accus- 
tomed to.  Every  new  faith  is  a  miracle  to  its  early  be- 
lievers; for  it  is  a  prevision  of  the  universal  law  which 
is  so  far  beyond  their  natural  powers  that  it  surprises 
them  into  enthusiasm;    its  miraculous  quality  makes 


Religion  689 

them  accept  it  as  the  final  revelation,  and  their  de- 
scendants, after  the}-  have  advanced  to  a  natural  view 
of  its  truths,  still  uphold  the  tradition  that  it  is  divine, 
and  strain  every  word  and  feature  of  it  in  order  to  find 
the  divine  in  it. 

A  pioneering  book  of  the  time  attempted  to  point  the 
way  of  biological  psychology  towards  the  goal  of  re- 
ligion. It  showed  how  the  plant  has  a  dim  sense  of 
its  being  moulded  from  without,  chiefly  by  the  grosser 
forms  of  energy;  and  how  the  animal  though  subject 
to  them  is  yet  capable  of  moving  amongst  them  and  re- 
belling against  their  power;  whilst  the  human  is  at- 
tained when  this  rebellion  rises  into  capacity  to  rule 
them  and  mould  them  to  its  will.  It  emphasised  the 
Limanoran  distinction  between  the  grossly  human  and 
the  wisely  human,  and  held  that  there  were  geological 
ages  of  development  lying  between  these;  for  the  one 
is  conscious  of  the  self  as  merely  allied  with  the  grosser 
forms  of  energy  like  the  animal;  the  mark  of  the  other 
is  the  consciousness  of  self  as  a  part  of  the  all,  as  allied 
with  the  law  of  the  all.  It  conceived  that  the  next 
grade  was  the  divine,  distinguished  by  consciousness 
of  the  all  as  created  and  guided  by  the  self.  The  wise 
amongst  men  in  its  view  had  thus  in  them  a  share  of  the 
divine.  There  was  it  is  true  in  all  men  the  possibility 
of  this,  though  in  most  it  was  latent.  The  loftiest  kind 
of  energy  they  had  yet  discovered  had  as  its  distinction 
the  sense  of  continuity  of  existence,  the  power  to  think 
back  through  the  past  and  forward  through  the  future; 
this  is  perhaps  what  is  meant  by  personal  identity  in 
Western  philosophy,  the  capacity  to  keep  the  self  from 
being  merged  in  the  mass  of  energies  that  fill  space. 
Men  have  attained  it  in  but  a  fitful  and  shadowy  way. 
Iu  savages  and  in  those  of  the  civilised  who  fall  away 


690  Limanora 

from  the  universal  law  of  progress  it  is  obscured  or 
buried  by  the  dominance  of  the  lower  and  transitory 
forms  of  energy.  The  book  imagined  that  when  the 
wise  die  this  highest  energy  is  so  strong  in  them  that 
it  cannot  amalgamate  again  with  those  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  upon  earth;  it  seeks  higher  alliance  and 
higher  spheres  than  it  has  hitherto  known;  and,  once 
having  found  its  new  and  sublimer  affinities,  it  can 
move  amid  the  grosser  forms  and  elements  untainted, 
unsubdued,  unrecognised,  by  them.  Gravitation  and 
heat  and  electricity  have  no  power  over  it  and  come 
into  relationship  to  it  only  when  it  wills  to  use  them; 
for  they  are  the  mediate  forms  of  energy  that  move  the 
molecules  and  atoms;  and  they  are  moved  and  piloted 
by  still  higher  forms,  that  are  perchance  the  will-power 
or  spirit  of  God;  these  higher  forms  come  not  yet 
within  the  range  of  human  senses,  but  are  inferred  by 
human  reason  and  conceived  by  human  imagination 
as  conscious  of  themselves,  evident  everywhere  by  their 
results,  the  marks  of  intelligence  throughout  the  cos- 
mos. But  this  book  imagined  that  the  disembodied 
energy  of  the  wise  knew  and  felt  them,  and  thus  came 
nearer  to  the  spirit  and  fountain  of  all.  Once  our  uni- 
verse has  distilled  its  best  energies  into  space  and  has 
accomplished  the  best  it  can,  our  swarm  of  firefly 
worlds  "  paling  their  now  ineffectual  fires"  encounter 
in  their  natural  epicycloidal  course  round  unperceived 
centres  the  systems  that  they  have  encountered  myr- 
iads of  geological  ages  before;  and  the  collision  of  the 
two  again  sends  them  on  their  career  of  the  evolution 
of  their  lower  energies  into  higher. 

But  the  L,inianorans  were  chary  of  claiming  anything 
that  they  discovered  or  conceived  as  the  ultimate  or 
the  absolute;  so  many  absolutes  of  the  past  had  after  a 


Religion  691 

time  yielded  points  of  view  into  infinities  beyond  them. 
Hundreds  of  their  scientific  highroads  led  manifestly 
towards  one  centre;  but  they  could  not  say  that  that 
was  the  final  centre  or  God.  Just  as  their  sun  with  its 
satellites  moved  round  another  centre,  which  was  itself 
in  revolution,  so  might  the  common  point  to  which 
their  various  sciences  seemed  to  converge  be  but  on  the 
outer  rim  of  a  series  of  sciences  that  had  a  still  more  in- 
ward centre.  Their  highest  faculties  might  have  above 
them  faculties  belonging  to  other  beings  in  the  cosmos 
as  superior  to  reason  and  imagination  as  reason  and 
imagination  were  to  the  sensuous  perceptions  of  the 
animals.  The  savage  had  no  power  to  comprehend  the 
results  of  the  reasoning  capacities  of  the  civilised  man; 
and  the  soul  of  the  sage,  when  disembodied,  might  be- 
gin to  perceive  the  heights  of  development  in  faculty 
he  had  still  to  climb.  All  their  recent  experience  bade 
them  wait  further  light  and  refuse  to  accept  any  re- 
velation of  being  as  ultimate,  and  in  the  rejection  of  all 
dogmatism  they  attained  the  true  religious  attitude  for 
imperfect  seekers  of  knowledge  like  men,  the  attitude 
of  waiting  for  light.  The  book  had  embodied  in  it  an 
apologue  that  put  this  belief  concretely. 

If  the  parasite  of  a  microbe  in  the  body  of  a  flea  were 
able  to  examine  and  analyse  its  conditions  and  sur- 
roundings and  had  the  faculty  of  reverence,  its  first 
religion  would  have  as  its  object  the  host  on  which  it 
battened,  and  would  endow  its  deity  with  its  own 
parasitic  faculties  and  desires.  But  as  its  horizon 
widened  and  it  found  its  host  but  the  dependent  of  an- 
other vital  centre,  it  would  contemn  the  mediacy  of  the 
microbe,  and  fix  all  its  reverence  and  adoration  upon 
the  flea,  which  would  seem  to  it  a  miraculous  and  om- 
nipotent edition  of  itself.     With  its  vision  and  all  its 


692  Limanora 

powers  of  observation  fixed  upon  the  host  of  its  host, 
it  would  soon  come  to  see  how  its  deity  was  not  self- 
subsi  stent  but  ricochetted  from  spot  to  spot,  and  the 
human  body  with  its  comparative  infinitude  would 
afterwards  take  the  place  of  the  flea  in  the  reverence  of 
the  microbe's  parasite,  and  be  accepted  as  the  vastest 
and  most  etherealised  edition  of  itself  the  parasite  could 
conceive,  having  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  real 
limits  and  faculties  of  its  new  deity.  As  soon  as  it 
was  able  to  measure  and  define  these,  it  would  undeify 
man  and  substitute  for  him  that  which  man  inhabited, 
and  endow  it  with  all  its  own  parasitic  powers  and 
limitations. 

Following  the  analogy,  the  new  book  saw  an  infin- 
itude of  pitfalls  and  disillusionments  before  the  religious 
faculty  of  man,  and  refused  to  accept  man's  similes  and 
metaphors  as  in  any  way  accurate  representations  of 
the  truth.  Similes  and  metaphors  they  must  remain 
marked  by  all  the  narrowness  of  human  limitations. 
Scientific  discovery  must  be  the  only  guide  of  religion; 
and  the  more  they  advanced  in  their  sciences,  the 
nearer  they  came  to  the  true  God.  For  this  reason  it 
was  that  they  felt  it  to  be  sin  to  withdraw  any  portion 
of  their  energy  or  time  from  scientific  pursuits  and  in- 
vestigations. To  know  the  cosmos  better  was  to  ap- 
proach nearer  to  the  spirit  of  the  cosmos,  to  grow  more 
truly  religious. 

The  last  decennial  review  that  I  witnessed,  occur- 
ring as  it  did  just  before  I  set  out  over  the  circle  of 
mist,  impressed  upon  me  the  provisional  as  well  as  the 
fundamental  character  of  their  religious  ideals.  Most 
of  the  books  dramatically  presented  in  Loomiefa  at 
that  period  had  the  final  aim  of  cosmic  life  and  energy 
as  their  theme;  to  me  they  struck  far  beyond  all  that 


Religion 


693 


the  most  idealistic  of  Western  religious  books  had  ever 
attempted  to  foreshadow;  and  yet  they  were  wholly 
based  upon  the  indications  that  recent  discoveries  had 
given.  In  a  still  more  startling  way,  thej^  were  taken 
as  but  temporary  satisfactions  of  futuritive  yearnings; 
they  bent  the  highest  energies  of  the  Limanorans  into 
paths  that  led  beyond  what  they  could  see  from  their 
actual  standpoint  in  science;  but  they  knew  from  past 
experience  that  the  full  blaze  of  noon  would  before 
long  fall  upon  these  dim  regions  now  lit  up  only  by 
presciential  imagination.  These  books  they  now  re- 
verenced for  their  pioneering  power;  but  as  soon  as  sci- 
entific advance  should  wither  them  into  the  trite  and 
commonplace,  nothing  could  ever  make  them  again 
guides  into  the  darkness  of  the  unknown,  nothing  in 
short  could  ever  restore  their  sacredness. 


CHAPTER   XIV 


THE   LAST  FLIGHT 


THOUGH  this  Manora  seemed  to  me  so  solemn  and 
almost  sacramental  in  its  spirit,  there  was  no 
withdrawal  of  any  of  the  families  from  the  duties  of 
their  daily  life.  They  were  as  eager  for  the  advance 
of  their  special  sciences  as  they  had  ever  been.  Nay, 
the  progress  seemed  to  me  more  and  more  rapid.  The 
faculties  were  whetted  to  their  utmost  keenness;  their 
energies  were  buoyant  and  free.  I  had  expected  at 
this  religious  review  of  the  whole  of  their  life  to  find 
a  relaxation  of  their  intellectual  temper,  a  languor  in 
their  wills,  such  as  I  had  often  noted  in  periods  of  great 
religious  outburst  in  the  West.  I  had  been  accustomed 
to  look  for  an  aloofness  from  the  common  pursuits  of 
life  and  a  prostration  before  the  great  ideals  of  faith, 
whenever  a  wave  of  worshipful  enthusiasm  broke  over 
any  community  in  Europe. 

This  people  would  have  thought  a  religion  that  thus 
blanched  common  life  of  its  interests  and  enthusiasms 
not  merely  useless  but  mischievous.  Prostration  be- 
fore the  infinities  and  eternities  was  the  last  attitude 
they  would  encourage;  for  they  considered  it  blas- 
phemy against  the  spirit  of  the  cosmos.  If  the  Man- 
ora  had    in   any  way  withdrawn  their  energies  from 

694 


The  Last  Flight  695 

their  forward  march,  they  would  have  abolished  it. 
Progress  was  religion,  or  the  fulfilment  of  the  irrepress- 
ible yearning  of  all  things  to  rise  in  the  cosmic  scale 
of  being,  and  that  anything  religious  should  check  or 
obstruct  advance  was  to  them  the  grossest  contradic- 
tion in  terms.  Religion  was  in  Umanora  the  essence 
of  practical  life,  or  rather  practical  life  was  the  highest 
religion. 

Though  the  review  was  an  intense  pleasure  to  the 
whole  nation,  throwing  the  thought  as  it  did  farther 
and  farther  into  the  future,  none  neglected  for  a  mo- 
ment the  severe  physical  labour  that  was  their  daily 
portion  in  the  centre  of  force.  None  felt  their  spirits 
relax  in  their  eagerness  to  perform  the  work  of  their 
life.  On  the  contrary,  the  new  religious  enthusiasm 
added  a  zest  to  all  that  they  had  to  do. 

To  no  families  did  so  many  or  so  urgent  demands 
come  as  to  those  of  the  Leomo;  for  the  great  mountain 
had  been  more  than  ordinarily  perturbed.  In  spite  of 
numerous  new  lava- wells,  the  crust  of  the  whole  island 
had  been  shaken  by  frequent  earthquakes,  and  out  of 
the  mouth  of  the  crater  had  stormed  far  pennons  of 
dust  and  ashes,  showing  that  something  unusual  was 
occurring  in  the  depths  below.  Then  had  come  a  sud- 
den and  ominous  lull  during  the  latter  half  of  the  Man- 
ora;  the  earth  had  grown  quiescent  and  the  whole 
summit  of  Limanora  stood  vivid  and  clear  in  the 
azure. 

The  Leomo  were  not  deceived  by  this  sudden  cessa- 
tion of  subterranean  activity.  It  meant  new  issues  for 
the  volcanic  energy  amid  the  antarctic  snows,  and  new 
dangers  from  the  possible  intrusion  of  southern  waters. 
Most  members  of  the  families  were  needed  in  the  island 
itself  for  the  investigation  of  the  new  phenomena  and 


696  Limanora 

the  sinking  of  lava-wells,  and  only  two  could  be  spared 
for  an  inspection  of  the  volcanoes  of  their  old  home. 
Thyriel  and  I  were  chosen  to  make  the  expedition. 
For  we  had  lately  been  accorded  the  high  privilege  of 
marriage,  and  comradeship  in  danger  was  the  usual 
and  natural  welder  of  the  new  bonds.  As  soon  as  the 
review  was  over  we  had  to  set  forth  on  our  venture, 
and  we  were  instructed  to  return  with  all  the  speed  we 
could  manage. 

We  did  not  need  such  instructions;  our  own  quick- 
ened enthusiasms  were  incentive  enough.  We  knew 
that  the  reports  by  the  idrovamolan  of  events  occurring 
so  far  to  the  south  could  not  be  wholly  trusted;  fur 
these  regions  were  too  often  enveloped  in  mist  or  blind- 
ing snowstorm,  and  it  was  difficult  to  float  the  observer 
in  the  teeth  of  their  furious  winds  and  impossible  to 
send  the  telepathic  line  of  light  to  such  a  distance. 
Even  if  electric,  aura!,  and  visual  records  had  been 
gathered  by  means  of  the  machine-reporters,  they 
would  not  have  been  minute  enough  for  the  purposes 
of  the  Leomo.  There  was  generally  needed  therefore 
a  personal  inspection  of  the  lands  away  to  the  south, 
whenever  there  were  unusual  perturbations  in  the 
great  mountain  and  its  precincts. 

To  have  been  selected  for  this  difficult  duty  was 
honour  so  great  as  to  stir  us  to  unwonted  effort.  A 
few  hours  after  the  duty  had  been  assigned  us  we  had 
everything  on  board  our  faleena,  and  from  the  hill  of 
farewells  we  had  started,  full  of  eagerness  to  do  our 
best  for  our  people.  We  were  too  happy  in  our  new 
comradeship  and  in  our  extraordinary  task  to  allow 
any  sense  of  separation  or  fear  of  disaster  to  cloud  our 
thoughts.  So  anxious  were  we  to  be  on  our  way  that 
we  scarcely  looked  back  at  our  companions  and  guard- 


The  Last  Flight  697 

ians,  as  they  stood  watching  our  flight  after  giving  us 
of  their  magnetism. 

Nothing  occurred  to  make  the  voyage  south  espe- 
cially memorable.  We  did  notice  far  below  us  in  the 
night  one  or  two  dark  masses  that  were  not  identifiable 
with  anything  in  our  maps.  But  we  set  them  down  as 
great  icebergs,  borne  out  of  their  usual  course;  and  the 
cap  they  seemed  to  bear  we  took  for  a  turban  of  mist 
round  their  heads.  From  our  later  observation  of  the 
southern  lands,  we  afterwards  judged  that  they  were 
temporary  volcanic  islands  thrown  up  on  the  line  of 
shallow  water  by  the  renewed  violence  of  the  fires 
below. 

A  great  storm  met  us  as  we  approached  the  ice-cliffs 
of  the  Antarctic;  nothing  could  be  seen  for  the  drift  of 
snow  and  hail  through  the  air,  and  we  were  forced  to 
rise  high  into  the  atmosphere  beyond  the  region  of 
winds  and  tempests  and  clouds.  For  days  we  could 
see  no  break  in  the  massed  blackness  below  us.  We 
chafed  at  the  delay  but  knew  that  it  was  inevitable; 
for  even  if  we  could  have  landed  in  safety,  we  should 
have  been  able  to  see  nothing  for  the  thickness  of  the 
driving  snowstorm,  and  we  would  assuredly  have  im- 
perilled our  faleena  in  attempting  to  come  to  earth  in 
the  baffling  winds. 

At  last  we  felt  the  magnetism  of  the  upper  atmo- 
sphere lessen  in  force  and  caprice,  and  we  knew  that  the 
disturbances  below  would  gradually  vanish.  The  sun 
seemed  to  gather  power,  and  we  saw  the  cloud-floor 
rend  like  an  ice-sheet  on  flooding  waters.  The  fifth 
morning  broke  brilliant  and  clear.  There  lay  the 
heaving  surface  of  the  ocean  blue  as  the  sky,  and  away 
to  the  south  gleamed  on  the  horizon  the  knife-edge  of 
far-stretching  ice.     But  there  was  something  new  and 


698  Limanora 

strange  beyond  it.  Thick  smoke  trailed  heavily  above 
it,  and  a  dozen  new  points  of  light  made  it  lurid. 

We  had  drifted  far  to  the  north,  and  anxiously  we 
turned  the  prow  of  our  airship  towards  the  old  home 
of  the  race.  We  seemed  to  wing  our  way  with  inor- 
dinate slowness,  so  eager  were  our  spirits  to  know  the 
new  phenomena  and  to  carry  the  report  back  to  Lima- 
nora. Every  league  nearer  made  us  more  certain  that 
some  great  disturbance  had  occurred  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth.  The  sea  was  covered  with  the  debris  of  a  world 
of  ice.  Huge  icebergs  swam  lazily  breasting  the  swell, 
or  clashed  against  each  other  in  splintering  collision; 
in  some  of  them  we  could  see  the  dark  motes  that 
marked  them  as  portions  of  the  vast  graveyard  we  had 
once  visited.  Closer  still  to  them  we  could  see  many 
of  the  long-buried  bodies  emerging  from  their  tombs 
of  frost,  like  L,azaruses  still  bound  in  their  grave- 
clothes.  It  was  a  strange  sight,  this  phantom-like 
resurrection  at  the  touch  of  sunlight. 

Over  the  unguided  procession  of  icy  funeral-barges, 
bearing  their  century-sheeted  dead  to  burial  in  the 
ocean,  we  hurriedly  winged  to  land.  There  were  still 
more  striking  sights  in  store  for  us.  The  appearance 
of  the  cliffs  and  mountains  had  been  completely 
changed.  It  looked,  as  we  approached,  as  if  what  had 
formerly  been  a  great  plateau  had  been  ridged  and 
furrowed  by  some  titanic  plough;  and  where  a  dozen 
smoke-vents  had  once  borne  witness  to  the  living  fires 
beneath,  hundreds  belched  forth  ashes  or  sent  a  red 
tongue  of  molten  lava  oozing  and  licking  down  their 
slopes. 

We  had  to  change  our  landing-place  far  to  the  west; 
for  dozens  of  miles  had  been  added  to  the  eruptive  area 
and  the  cliffs  where  we  used  to  land  were  scarred  by 


The  Last  Flight  699 

explosion  or  were  tottering  before  the  assaults  of  the 
billows.  The  storm  that  we  had  encountered  had  evi- 
dently been  the  companion,  if  not  the  result,  of  this 
vast  upheaval  and  at  the  same  time  had  hidden  from 
us,  as  we  hovered  above  the  clouds,  the  titanic  pyro- 
techuy. 

We  flew  along  the  cliff-line,  till  we  reached  a  region 
that  seemed  untouched  by  the  orgasm  of  the  earth. 
Our  airship  we  piloted  into  a  cleft  or  valley  which,  we 
thought,  could  protect  it  from  any  showers  of  ashes  or 
torrents  of  lava  that  might  approach.  But  to  guard 
against  possible  disaster,  we  adjusted  our  wings  and 
took  with  us  as  much  of  the  minute  stores  of  sustenance 
as  we  could  carry  in  our  garments.  We  securely  fast- 
ened down  the  faleena,  so  that  no  storm  might  bear  it 
away;  and  then  we  rose  into  the  air  on  our  wings 
above  the  smoke  and  steam  that  hung  over  this  region. 

It  was  with  great  difficulty  and  some  danger  that  we 
investigated  the  state  of  the  land  where  the  lava-wells 
had  been  sunk.  For  the  vents  spat  out  great  showers 
of  dust  and  ashes  intermittently,  and  the  pall  of  smoke 
brushed  this  way  and  that  as  the  light  breeze  rose  and 
fell.  By  dint  of  care  and  watchfulness  we  managed  to 
see  most  of  the  ridge-side  that  abutted  on  the  ocean. 
Its  whole  appearance  had  been  changed.  There  was 
not  a  sign  of  our  old  lava-wells.  The  side  of  one  hill 
had  been  blown  away,  and  a  torrent  of  melted  snow 
and  ice  raced  down  the  ravine.  Vents  had  been  broken 
out  where  there  had  been  glacier  or  precipice  or  rocky 
peak.  But  as  )ret  none  of  the  vents  were  low  enough 
to  let  the  sea  break  over  their  lips.  The  worst  of  all 
had  not  yet  occurred. 

We  could  not  finish  our  investigation  in  the  first  day. 
So  we  lay  down  in  our  faleena  to  sleep,  as  the  brief 


700  Limanora 

darkness  approached.  We  were  well  content  with  our 
day's  work;  and  we  would  have  slept  easily  and  well 
but  for  the  tremors  in  the  earth  beneath  us.  Its  very 
foundations  seemed  at  times  to  shake  and  threaten  con- 
vulsion. Once  we  thought  of  taking  to  the  air  again 
for  safety,  so  billow-like  were  the  movements  that 
tossed  us  as  we  lay. 

However,  morning  broke  without  catastrophe,  and 
we  were  soon  busy  at  our  work  of  inspection.  We  flew 
to  the  other  side  of  the  range  of  mountains  in  order  to 
note  how  the  shores  of  the  inland  sea  had  borne  the 
effects  of  the  commotion  in  the  crust  of  the  earth.  At 
first  we  seemed  to  see  no  change,  but  when  we  had  left 
our  faleena  and  followed  the  old  line  of  cliffs,  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  disturbance  impressed  us.  New  preci- 
pices stood  beetling  over  the  still  waters,  where  we 
remembered  to  have  seen  low  shelving  ba3^s.  We 
searched  for  the  old  sections  in  which  we  had  seen  the 
stratification  of  civilised  abode;  but  the  strange  pal- 
impsest of  prehistoric  history,  a  dozen  times  rewritten 
by  the  toil  and  hope  of  man,  had  been  again  obliterated 
by  the  finger  of  fire.  A  tongue  of  lava  only  just  cool 
had  licked  out  the  record  of  the  dead  ages.  A  tawny 
glacis  of  rock  confronted  us  instead  of  the  panorama  of 
thousands  of  years. 

Everywhere  we  flew  were  marks  of  the  recent  vol- 
canic work;  and  not  merely  creative,  but  destructive. 
Still  farther  off  we  found  vast  subsidences  which  had 
suddenly  unveiled  the  secrets  of  many  geological 
epochs.  Some  of  them  had  been  titanic  in  the  abrupt- 
ness and  extent  of  their  work;  but  the  great  ice-planes 
and  ice-harrows  had  been  already  smoothing  and  round- 
ing or  levelling  the  serrated  or  sharp  edges.  Only  in 
one  new  cliff  did  we  see  a  repetition  of  the  now  hidden 


The  Last  Flight  701 

record.  A  bold  hill  had  been  cut  through  as  by  a 
sword  and  here  had  evidently  been  built  and  over- 
whelmed village  after  village;  we  could  discern  here 
and  there  traces  of  their  emplo\-ments  suddenly 
abandoned,  their  looms  and  ploughs  and  anvils  em- 
balmed in  rock;  and  once  or  twice  the  forms  of  the 
workers,  tragically  surprised  at  their  work  by  the 
showers  of  ashes,  showed  empty  and  void,  the  living 
tissues  having  fallen  to  dust  leaving  only  the  shell,  like 
the  tunnel  of  a  huge  worm  in  the  petrified  debris.  We 
lingered  over  this  open  volume  of  human  history  longer 
than  we  would  have  done  had  we  been  older  and  wiser, 
so  deeply  did  it  touch  the  fountains  of  romance,  and  the 
dimmer  twilight  of  the  brief  antarctic  night  overtook 
us  before  our  task  was  done. 

When  we  awoke  at  dawn,  we  resumed  our  investiga- 
tions, only  to  find  countless  signs  of  renewed  subter- 
ranean energy.  We  hurried  to  the  various  points  of 
danger  and  discovered  only  too  clearly  that  the  first 
storm  would  send  the  waters  of  the  ocean  breaching 
into  many  new  volcanic  vents.  We  could  have  no 
hesitance  as  to  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  and  the  next 
steps  to  take.  It  would  be  impossible  for  us,  unpro- 
vided as  we  were  with  instruments  and  engines,  to 
guard  against  the  threatening  catastrophe.  The  best 
we  could  do  would  be  to  return  with  all  swiftness  to 
Limanora  and  warn  the  elders  of  our  family.  Per- 
chance we  should  be  able  to  anticipate  the  approach  of 
any  tempest;  and  if  temporary  measures  were  taken, 
the  coming  winter  might  stop  the  gaping  mouths  of 
ruin  with  her  downward-creeping  glaciers. 

We  hastened  back  to  the  slope  on  which  we  had  left 
our  faleena.  Even  at  a  distance,  as  we  swept  down 
from  aloft,  we  began  to  be  troubled  at  the  changes  in 


702  Limanora 

the  landscape.  Where  there  had  been  a  great  ice-cap 
crowning  a  precipitous  ridge,  there  was  a  gaping 
chasm;  rock  and  incrustation  had  been  together  blown 
to  atoms.  A  new  smoking  cone  was  brushing  the 
azure  with  its  cloud  of  dust;  and,  as  we  descended,  we 
found  its  streams  of  lava  still  licking  and  hissing  their 
way  through  the  snow  and  ice  that  clothed  its  feet. 

We  recognised  the  features  of  the  locality  with  diffi- 
culty, and  it  was  long  before  we  fixed  the  valley  in 
which  we  had  left  our  airship.  Still  we  could  see  no 
trace  of  our  trusty  faleena;  it  had  vanished.  After 
long  search  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  had  been 
swept  on  by  a  billow  of  molten  rock  and  overwhelmed, 
and  the  realisation  of  the  calamity  cast  me  despairing 
to  the  ground. 

How  different  it  was  with  Thyriel,  I  perceived,  as 
soon  as  my  dismay  allowed  me  to  rouse  my  conscious- 
ness from  its  palsy.  She  was  exploring  the  edges  of 
the  tongue  of  fire;  and  up  the  side  of  the  opposing  hill 
she  found  a  section  of  our  flight-car  unmelted  by  the 
heat,  broken  off  by  a  bold  jut  of  rock  and  left  scarred 
by  the  fire  and  twisted  by  the  force  of  the  sea  of  lava, 
yet  recognisable  in  its  outlines.  Happily  it  was  the 
part  that  contained  our  store  of  sustenance  and  all  our 
equipments  for  a  long  wing-voyage,  spare  chest-and- 
shoulder  engines  and  the  apparatus  necessary  for  sup- 
plying them  with  electricity  from  the  air. 

We  did  not  encumber  ourselves  with  more  than  we 
thought  would  be  essential  for  the  long  air-journey 
back  to  Riallaro.  The  minute  pellets  of  sustenance 
were  easily  disposed  of.  But  it  puzzled  us  to  know 
what  to  do  with  the  additional  apparatus  for  so  pro- 
tracted a  voyage.  My  powers  of  flight  were  still  so 
crude  and  undeveloped  and  my  locomotion  through 


The  Last  Flight  703 

the  air  so  clumsy  and  slow  that  Thyriel  had  to  carry 
both  hers  and  mine.  I  was  greatly  perturbed  over  the 
possible  result  of  so  dangerous  a  venture.  But  it  had 
to  be  undertaken,  and  she  had  buoyancy  and  exhilara- 
tion enough  for  both.  My  sinking  heart  felt  the  in- 
fluence of  her  magnetism,  and  I  gained  confidence  after 
we  set  out. 

The  first  half  of  our  voyage  was  marked  by  singular 
good  fortune.  The  breeze  went  with  us  every  day,  and 
at  night,  or  when  the  muscles  of  my  legs  and  arms  grew 
numb  from  fatigue,  we  sighted  an  iceberg  and  rested 
on  it;  though  it  heaved  and  rocked  and  on  occasion 
threatened  submersion,  our  minds  were  at  rest,  for  we 
had  our  wings  always  attached  and  everything  in 
readiness  to  sweep  upwards  from  our  perch. 

The  difficulty  came  when  we  passed  beyond  the 
Antarctic  Ocean,  and  voyaged  high  above  that  heav- 
ing trackless  desert  of  water  which  lies  between  the 
region  of  icebergs  and  the  first  ring  of  islets  that 
stipple  the  tropical  seas.  How  were  we  to  find  rest- 
ing-places at  night  or  during  the  day,  when  my  wing- 
achievements  grew  lame  and  tardy?  Even  Thyriel's 
heart  sank,  as  she  thought  of  the  hundreds  of  leagues 
we  had  to  traverse  unbroken  by  any  sign  of  land. 

At  first  she  kept  along  the  immemorial  line  of  bird- 
travel  from  the  south  on  the  chance  of  finding  here 
and  there  some  spot  of  land  thrown  up  by  the  growing 
disturbances  beneath  the  sea.  For  some  days  we  were 
fortunate  enough  to  find  a  nightly  perching-place 
above  the  billows  upon  the  temporary  vents  of  the  sub- 
marine fires,  dangerous  it  is  true,  yet  with  care  and 
watching  safe.  Then  we  came  upon  a  zone  of  calm 
water,  so  strangely  still  and  free  from  the  action  of 
wind  and  current  that  the  albatrosses  basked  moveless 


704  Limanora 

upon  it.     Here  Thyriel  bound  our  wings  together  and 
made  a  raft,  on  which  we  floated  as  we  slept. 

But  that  was  only  for  two  revolutions  of  the  earth 
and  was  the  prelude  to  a  tornado  from  the  north-east, 
a  wind  so  unusual  in  those  latitudes  that  the  Linia- 
norans  never  take  it  into  the  calculations  of  their  voy- 
ages through  the  air.  Just  when  we  were  within  three 
days'  wing-journey  of  our  home  the  tempest  began  and 
brought  us  almost  to  a  standstill.  We  tried  to  battle 
against  it  but  our  efforts  were  vain.  Then  we  rose, 
according  to  Limanoran  custom,  into  the  higher  atmo- 
sphere where  is  usually  found  perfect  calm  and  perfect 
freedom  from  cloud  and  storm,  but  the  fury  of  the  dis- 
turbance seemed  to  be  miles  deep.  The  upper  air  was 
as  thick  and  turbulent  as  the  lower. 

Our  troubles  culminated  in  disaster  to  my  wing-ap- 
pendages. I  was  never  expert  in  their  management, 
but  in  the  baffling  storm  I  grew  helpless  and  in  my  de- 
spair let  them  beat  almost  unguided.  The  result  was 
irreparable  injury  to  the  left  wing  and  such  an  obstruc- 
tion to  the  movement  of  the  right  as  made  it  unman- 
ageable. I  felt  my  heart  sink;  for  I  saw  that  I  must 
soon  fall  into  the  ocean  below  and  be  dashed  to  pieces 
or  drowned. 

Thyriel  looked  down  and  saw  my  peril.  In  a  flash 
of  thought  she  abandoned  all  she  carried  except  her 
chest-and-sboulder  engines,  and,  swooping  down  to- 
wards me,  caught  me  as  I  fell.  An  upward  sweep  of 
the  wind  aided  her  in  her  efforts,  and  she  buoyed  me 
up  till  I  had  recovered  energy  and  heart.  Then  she 
told  me  what  she  meant  to  do.  For  a  time  I  would  not 
be  persuaded  and  prayed  that  I  might  be  abandoned  to 
my  fate,  but  she  would  not  hear  of  such  a  thing.  By 
the  force  of  her  will  I  soon  gave  way  and  nestled,  as  I 


The  Last  Flight  705 


i& 


had  often  done  when  learning  to  fly,  in  the  hollow  be- 
tween her  wings. 

Before  the  storm  she  let  herself  go ;  and  I  could  feel 
we  were  moving  almost  as  swiftly  as  if  we  had  been  in 
our  own  faleena.  It  was  useless  for  her,  she  showed 
me,  to  fight  against  the  wind,  especially  after  she  had 
thrown  away  the  apparatus  for  quickly  renewing  the 
power  of  her  engines.  After  a  time  I  saw  how  much 
she  laboured  under  her  burden,  and  I  sent  promptly 
into  the  gulf  beneath  all  that  I  had  carried,  my  broken 
wings,  my  engines,  and  my  stores  of  sustenance.  I 
felt  that  her  spirit  protested;  but  she  said  nothing,  and 
I  was  relieved  to  feel  that  we  were  rising  instead  of 
falling.  She  grew  more  buoyant  and  was  even  able  to 
spare  magnetism  enough  to  put  heart  into  me. 

The  course  she  had  taken  so  promptly  was  the  only 
one  that  could  have  saved  both  of  us.  She  might  have 
weathered  the  storm  alone,  and  then  found  her  way 
back  to  Limanora.  But  as  it  was  she  knew  that  the 
tempest  would  bear  us,  if  she  could  keep  us  both  high 
above  the  earth,  right  across  the  long  narrow  cloud  of 
New  Zealand. 

She  felt  by  her  bodily  magnetism  that  we  were  ap- 
proaching it,  and  while  it  was  still  daylight  we  came 
within  reach  of  it.  She,  seeing  that  we  were  evidently 
coasting  its  southern  shores,  but  too  far  off  to  make 
them  with  her  exhausted  powers,  grew  afraid  that 
we  would  be  blown  far  off  to  the  south  again  and  thus 
miss  our  resting-place ;  for  we  could  see  the  coasts  round 
northwards.  Happily  at  this  juncture  the  wind  sud- 
denly veered  round  to  the  south-west,  and  we  were 
swept  before  it  in  the  twilight  into  a  deep  fiord.  Our 
hearts  were  glad  to  feel  that  soon  we  should  touch  the 
earth  and  rest.     I  was  tempestuously  elated;  for  I  felt, 


706  Limanora 

by  the  beat  of  her  heart  and  the  quick  short  breaths 
she  drew,  that  she  was  near  the  end  of  her  powrers. 

We  were  close  to  a  precipice  and  I  was  eagerly  pre- 
paring to  leap  from  her  back,  when  she  seemed  sud- 
denly to  collapse.  I  fell  through  the  air,  and  then 
knew  no  more  till  I  awakened  in  your  hut.  What  be- 
came of  Thyriel  puzzled  me  for  long.  But  I  am  per- 
suaded that  after  seeing  me  drawn  by  you  safely  to 
land  she  went  off  before  the  favouring  wind  towards 
Ivimanora  for  help.  That  she  has  been  so  long  troubles 
my  thoughts  deeply  at  times.  But  I  believe  that  she 
will  return  for  me,  if  only  I  rest  here  long  enough.  I 
dare  not  leave  the  place  long,  lest  she  should  come  in 
my  absence.  And  the  solitude  and  your  gentle  silence 
soothe  me  in  my  weary  meditation. 


'0  f^^^^^M^^^' 


EPILOGUE 


WE  felt  guiltily  conscious,  as  he  came  to  this  close 
of  his  narrative.  But  we  had  not  the  heart  to 
hint  what  we  thought  might  have  become  of  her. 

Almost  three  years  had  passed  before  his  narrative 
reached  the  point  of  contact  with  our  lives.  He  now  be- 
came restless  and  jaded  and  flitted  in  and  out  amongst 
us  like  a  ghost.  For  days  he  vanished  in  the  bush, 
and  again  and  again  we  thought  he  had  finally  disap- 
peared. But  he  ever  returned,  more  restless  and  yet 
more  gentle. 

We  could  not  bear  to  see  his  agony  and  yearning, 
and  at  last  proposed  that  we  should  hire  or  pur- 
chase a  small  steamer,  and  under  his  guidance  make 
for  Riallaro.  He  was  long  reluctant,  but  after  mouths 
of  hope  deferred  resigned  himself  to  the  enterprise. 

Trowm  and  I  made  for  the  nearest  port  and  brought 
our  purchase  round  to  our  fiord,  well-provisioned  and 
equipped  for  a  tropical  voyage.  Somm  was  left  by  our 
huts  and  our  mine  to  guard  our  interests,  but  still  more 
to  watch  for  the  advent  of  any  messenger  from  the 
strange  land  within  the  circle  of  mist. 

The  rest  of  us  set  out  with  our  guest  in  search  of  his 
home.  Nothing  happened  to  our  expedition  beyond 
the  usual  mishaps  of  tropical  seas.  A  tornado  made 
us   take   refuge   within   an    uninhabited  atoll;    in   its 

707 


708  Limanora 

harbour  our  craft  was  safe  enough,  but  it  took  all  our 
powers  to  hold  on  to  the  scanty  herbage  that  clung  to 
the  reef  and  prevent  our  being  blown  into  the  ocean 
beyond.  Once  or  twice  we  had  an  awkward  incident 
with  sharks,  and  once  we  came  too  close  to  an  island 
whose  shore  swarmed  with  threatening  savages.  They 
sprang  into  their  canoes  and  made  for  us,  but  our 
steam  enabled  us  to  outdistance  them  with  ease. 

Our  stranger  knew  the  exact  latitude  and  longitude 
of  Riallaro.  He  could  point  out  its  place  on  a  map 
with  a  confidence  that  made  us  feel  we  were  about  to 
enter  with  him  into  the  mysterious  archipelago.  We 
sailed  straight  for  the  western  side  of  the  ring  of  mist, 
but  never  did  we  encounter  any  such  feature  as  he  had 
described  to  us.  Once  or  twice  we  thought  we  saw  an 
extended  haze  on  the  horizon  and  made  for  it;  but  it 
vanished  as  we  approached;  it  was  only  the  mirage  of 
the  ocean.  Weeks  and  weeks  we  steamed  around  and 
over  the  region,  but  not  a  trace  of  the  great  archi- 
pelago or  its  nebulous  fence  did  we  find. 

Even  our  guide  at  last  fell  into  silent  bewilderment. 
He  could  not  believe  that  it  had  all  disappeared  like  a 
dream;  unless,  as  we  fancied,  the  subterranean  forces 
had  blown  it  into  space.  Nor  could  he  mistrust  his 
senses  or  his  knowledge.  What  to  think  of  it  he  did 
not  venture  to  decide.  He  lay  in  stupor  and  silence 
for  days. 

But  we  knew  that  within  a  few  weeks  began  the 
season  of  hurricanes;  and  we  determined  to  make  back 
for  our  shelter  in  the  southern  fiord.  He  reluctantly 
consented  to  our  persuasion,  after  making  us  promise 
that  we  should  return  again  to  search  for  his  lost  para- 
dise. In  the  meantime  he  would  be  able  to  study  the 
charts  of  the  region,  and  define  the  knowledge  of  it 


Epilogue  7°9 


more  exactly.  He  knew  by  heart  its  relations  to  the 
sun  and  the  stars;  and  with  stud}'  he  could  tell  the 
very  place  where  to  follow  our  search.  As  it  was,  he 
had  doubtless  made  some  mistake;  and  he  would  rectify 
it  in  the  interval  of  rest. 

Without  mishap  or  obstructive  weather  we  got  back 
into  the  shadow  of  our  mountains;  and  one  day  of  bril- 
liant sunshine  we  sailed  into  the  fiord.  Somm  was  on 
the  shore  to  welcome  us.  He  had  no  news  to  give. 
No  one  had  been  near  the  place  since  we  had  left.  But 
he  had  had  to  make  into  a  neighbouring  sound  in  order 
to  supply  his  empty  larder,  and  as  the  wind  seemed  to 
favour  his  trip,  he  had  brought  the  masts  and  sails  of 
our  boat  out  of  our  cave. 

Our  guest  paced  up  to  our  hut  as  in  a  dream,  seem- 
ing to  hear  and  see  nothing  around  him.  We  let  him 
find  his  way  alone,  whilst  we  beached  and  dismantled 
our  little  steamer. 

In  our  bustle  of  work  we  had  forgotten  him.  Sud- 
denly a  strange,  scarcely  human  cry  awakened  our  at- 
tention. We  rushed- up  the  steep  pathway  and  found 
him  lying  in  trance  by  the  mouth  of  the  cave,  stretched 
upon  the  wings  that  we  had  cast  into  our  lumber-hole 
when  we  rescued  him  from  the  water.  Somm  had  had 
to  turn  them  out  to  get  at  the  sails  and  cordage  of  the 
boat,  and  had  forgotten  to  return  them  to  their  place. 
They  were  cob  webbed  and  covered  with  lichen  and 
mould,  )ret  the  transparency  of  them  in  spots  gathered 
the  rays  of  the  sun  upon  the  herbage  underneath. 

We  raised  him  from  his  resting-place  and  carried  him 
into  our  spare  hut.  There  we  tried  to  bring  him  back 
to  consciousness,  but  our  efforts  were  vain.  There  was 
life  in  him,  we  were  certain;  5Tet  there  was  scarce^-  a 
sign  of  it  in  movement  or  breath,  only  a  fragment  of 


710  Limanora 

the  wings  held  to  the  mouth  showed  a  trace  of  moisture. 
So  we  left  him  for  the  night,  remembering  that  it  was 
long  before  he  recovered  from  the  first  trance  in  which 
we  had  found  him.  We  wrapped  him  round  with 
warm  clothing,  and  placing  him  comfortably  on  a  soft 
bed  of  fern  put  food  and  drink  near  him,  so  that,  if  he 
wakened,  he  should  know  we  had  thought  of  him  and 
were  near. 

The  next  morning  at  daybreak  I  rose,  and  the  inci- 
dent of  the  previous  evening  rushed  into  my  mind.  I 
made  for  the  hut,  expecting  to  find  him  recovered  and 
asleep,  but  I  found  no  human  being  there.  The  wrap- 
pings had  fallen  on  either  side  of  the  fern-lair.  The 
bowls  of  meat  and  drink  were  almost  empty;  but  there 
were  evident  marks  of  the  claws  and  beaks  of  birds  in 
them. 

We  searched  for  him  in  the  bush  for  days,  but  we 
never  found  track  of  him.  The  only  sign  of  his  move- 
ments was  that  the  wings  were  gone.  Whether  he  had 
adjusted  them  to  his  body  and  flown  into  the  air  or 
buried  them  in  the  sea  we  could  not  discover.  There 
clings  to  our  thoughts  the  fancy  that  he  faded  away 
into  the  azure  under  the  blow  of  assurance  that  Thyriel 
was  gone  for  ever.  We  kept  our  eyes  on  the  alert  for 
years  after,  as  we  went  prospecting  through  the  forest; 
and  slowly  the  thought  lurking  in  our  minds  passed 
into  assured  belief  that  his  ethereal  texture  had  melted 
into  the  air  at  death,  that  the  earth  received  none  of 
his  material  atoms  when  his  energy  fled  from  its 
surface. 

It  is  only  now,  when  we  are  sure  that  he  has  gone 
from  our  orb,  that  we  venture  on  giving  his  stor}*-  to 
the  rest  of  mankind.  We  know  no  better  memorial  to 
him,  and  no  better  form  for  our  gratitude  than  to  let 


Epilogue 


1 1 


others  know  what  he  gave  us,  to  let  others  feel  what 
has  passed  into  our  own  lives  as  an  imperishable 
memory. 

Godfrey  Swevex. 

THE    END. 


Date  Due 

' 

W     JAN  2  8  '4| 

i 

Pi: 

<*?? 

TOI6W 

FEB  6  '31 

fle^W 

PHILOSOPHY 

*?& 

3-DM  RESf 

RVi 

Form  335— 40M— 6-40 


:  « 


823.91  B878L  443538 


